Blackout
by GracedAngel1864
Summary: Two strangers awaken in a wasteland without their friends. Almost the entire day leading up to how they ended up together is blank. Through suspicion and fleeting memories, a strange story unfolds, as well as romance. Ami/Trowa, plus other scouts/pilots.
1. Day 1

Blackout

Day 1

She heard herself groaning in protest although she was hardly aware it was her own voice making the sound. Placing both of her hands firmly on the hard ground, she again attempted to at least rise to her knees.

Black spots danced in front of her vision as a shooting pain tore through her collar bone, causing her to once again collapse. The area she lay in was dim, the sun setting behind the large bare mountain in the distance.

"Stop it," a soft yet firm voice said, commanding her attention and making her suddenly aware that someone else was in the barren land with her. She craned her neck to the right from where she lay to try and see who it was, shocked when her eyes locked with a pair of intense emerald green ones.

The man stared back at her for what seemed like a long time, his eyes stoic as he watched her, before speaking once more.

"You're making yourself bleed more," he pointed out, ushering with his own blood covered hand at her, before placing it back on his wounded leg. He had brown hair cut short except for one long bang, which was currently swept away from his eyes and reflecting his dishevelled appearance. She was sure she looked no better. Unlike her, he was sitting up. He was also clad in clothes fit for a different season than where she had come from. In Tokyo, it was late spring and hot out. This man was in pair of jeans, now blood soaked from his left leg, and a long sleeved green turtleneck. He was probably more suited to what seemed to be the fall-like weather in the land they were stuck in than she was.

He stared at the woman who lay almost flat on her stomach before him critically. He began from her apparent wounds and moved to her weather- inappropriate attire, consisting of a simple white sun dress with thin straps from what he could see. It flowed slightly away from her figure after the waist, falling around her legs and up to her knees. Blood from the wound on her collar bone soaked some of the back and he was sure the front of her dress. Her side also seemed to have been bleeding before, although it looked like that wound had stopped. His eyes traveled up to her short blue hair and deep blue eyes, which locked on his once she craned her neck to see him. She was staring at him for answers, he was sure. It was unfortunate that he didn't have any. Where was she from anyways? She couldn't have come from anywhere that wasn't sunny and warm considering her clothing.

"I'm Ami," she said after another long minute passed, positive that this man was not big on talking.

He stared at her a moment more, before nodding and simply saying "Trowa."

Ami nodded as best she could, staring at the ground once more. Where were her friends? The sudden task that had been thrust upon the scouts earlier that afternoon had seemed easy enough, but it had all gone terribly wrong very quickly and she had only now awoken to find herself in this barren land. The thought that she had awoken that morning with only the plan of going to a graduation lunch with her friends made her stomach turn. Where were they anyways?

The reason she had ended up here was clear: they had failed. However, why was this man here?

"Do you know how we got here?" She asked, turning back to look at him although the continuously setting sun made it difficult.

He stared at the woman before him. He was clearly not about to tell a civilian that he and his friends had messed up a mission which had caused him to end up in this wasteland.

"No."

Ami sighed quietly. Maybe she still had her communicator on her somewhere. She pushed herself off of her arms and stared at her wrists a moment, defeated in not knowing where her communicator was. For that matter, where was her transformation wand?

She had a pocket in the front of her dress, maybe it was there. Or maybe she had fallen on it; it could have been on the floor. Either way, she had to get onto her back and off her stomach to see.

Steadying herself on her elbows this time, she mustered up as much strength as possible and pushed herself to the right, rolling onto her back with a small cry.

"What are you doing?" Trowa questioned, his voice stoic yet she sensed some annoyance. "You're just making your injuries worse."

He indeed was slightly annoyed at having to speak so much to the strange girl, who apparently didn't listen to anything he had told her.

Her hands now weakly prodded at her own dress, her head back against the ground and making it difficult to see. Trowa stared as she found a small pocket on the front of her dress and came up empty handed. She sighed and felt around the area she laid for her wand or communicator, eventually propping herself on her elbows so that she could partly sit up and survey the area, seeing nothing.

"What are you looking for?" Trowa asked, and Ami stopped searching although she didn't lye back down, wanting to see her surroundings however difficult that was in the dim light.

"My cell phone," she said quickly, and he nodded although he was frowning. His frown faded once he had a good look at her face for the first time. She frowned at the change of demeanor and glanced behind her a moment, turning back to Trowa. He was already looking away when she turned back to him and she frowned as well, looking down.

For the first time since he'd woken up, Trowa was thankful for the dark. He stole a quick glance back at her before staring back down at his left hand, still clutching his leg. She was indeed beautiful, but Trowa was not about to let himself get distracted. They still had a major problem on their hands. He had to wrap up his leg and the girl's injuries as well, and since it was dark walking was out of the question for several reasons.

Firstly, Trowa couldn't walk until his leg stopped bleeding a bit. Luckily, the wound seemed shallow. Hopefully by the morning, given that the blood would have stopped, he probably would be able to walk.

Secondly, the girl's injuries seemed worse than his, which meant that Trowa might have to carry her if she couldn't walk, since she could hardly sit up currently.

Lastly, he had no idea where they were going. It would be absolutely unsafe to walk aimlessly in the dark, possibly further from civilization than they already were.

He had to wonder who had left them here or whether or not they were coming back. Her side was done bleeding too, so....

"Is your collar bone still bleeding?" He asked Ami, and her hand touched the wound lightly before falling back to her side.

"It stopped, I'll be fine until we can get some help," she lied, knowing that her wounds would heal more rapidly than Trowa would expect by morning.

"Get some rest, we'll try to get out of here in the morning," Trowa told Ami, who for once listened to him and lowered her head to the floor carefully, not wanting her elbows to give and her hit her head as well. It began to get colder and Ami turned her body slightly to the side and pulled her knees closer to stomach, hugging her arms around her chest and trying to sleep.

Once Ami was quietly sleeping, Trowa turned back to his leg. He tore a strip off the bottom of his jeans, thankful that they were already partly torn, and tied the strip tightly around the wound that was just above his knee.

The moon was out, illuminating the area slightly. Trowa leaned back and went to sleep, hoping that the morning would prove a simpler solution to his current problem.

Ami blinked open her eyes, her right hand flying over them to keep out the sun.

"Glad you're up," a voice to her right said, reminding her instantly where she was as she turned to look at Trowa. He was standing, however unsteady that may have been.

"Are you sure you're okay to walk?" She asked, frowning as she sat up.

"I have to be, we have to get out of here. The temperature's dropped about ten degrees since last night and the wind is making it even colder," Trowa said, frowning as he realized that may have been the longest sentence he'd said to a stranger in a long time. "Can you stand?"

She nodded although he doubted this fact. As Ami began to stand, she felt a shiver rip through her and she almost fell back down, her head suddenly feeling heavy.

Trowa crouched down next to her and grabbed her lightly by the shoulder to steady her, nodding. "You're feverish. I am slightly too, although I'm guessing I'm better off than you are considering your clothing. It got really cold while we were sleeping."

Ami nodded, suppressing a blush at the way he was staring at her as she attempted to get up again. With his help, she managed to stand and even take a few steps forward alone before she needed to lean against him. At the rate she was healing, she was sure she would be running circles around Trowa before he could walk properly. That was of course given that she had time to rest her injuries and wasn't feverish.

Since it was finally daylight, she chanced a look at what had been her favorite white sun dress. White no more, sadly the dress was blood soaked and dirty.

A cold wind tore through the area once more, and Trowa pulled Ami forwards slightly.

"We have to move. We don't want to be stuck here at night again."

Ami nodded and the two began their slow walk away from the area, to the left and away from the bare mountain.

Since Trowa was a man of few words, Ami allowed her mind to wander, trying to figure out how she had ended up here.

She remembered waking up the previous morning. She remembered Setsuna interrupting their college graduation lunch and telling the Senshi that there was some kind of an inter-dimensional tear that needed to be taken care of immediately. She remembered transforming and going to the gates of time. Then what had happened? She had.....

A bad feeling settled in Ami's stomach and she had to will her feet to move forwards. Trowa glanced down at her but shrugged it off as a small pain from the walking as she continued without a word.

She had....what had she done after that? There was no way she had passed out from before she entered the gates of time. So why couldn't she remember anything from that point? What had happened to all of her friends? Why was she alone in this wasteland with a stranger who didn't seem like he could have anything to do with her current situation?

Trowa glanced around the area as they walked, looking down at Ami and forwards. He had awakened earlier that morning and tried to retrace his steps or remember where the mission had gone wrong. The problem was he couldn't. He couldn't remember anything beyond when he and his friends and fellow ex-Gundam pilots had left preventer's headquarters that morning. They had been going to investigate talk of a strange cult-like group which had been converting civilians on the L2 colony into followers by preaching about inter-dimensional beings. There was no talk on how dangerous the cult was, but the five had been sent to go incognito and see what the cult required of its members. However, Trowa didn't even remember reaching L2. He couldn't remember anything beyond leaving headquarters. Now he was here, with an injured civilian, wondering what the hell had happened.

He glanced down at Ami once more, unsure of whether she was as quiet as he was or had simply picked up on the fact that he preferred not to speak. Perhaps learning where she had come from would help him to remember what had happened.

"Where are you from Ami?" Trowa asked casually, glancing down at her once more.

Ami knew what he meant. Why are you wearing summery clothing when it's practically winter.

"I'm from Tokyo," she said.

"Tokyo," he repeated, glancing down at her. "I think we're far from Tokyo, although I don't know where exactly."

"I think so too," she said, hoping that would close the subject. It didn't.

"Do you know where we are?"

"No," she said truthfully, before asking sharply, "Where are you from?"

Deciding to keep with what his mission had asked of him early and stay incognito, he responded. "L2."

She looked up sharply and he caught her before she could look away.

"L2?" She repeated, sounding confused as though she hadn't heard him right.

"Yes, L2," he said stiffly, and she nodded quickly and looked away. What in the world did L2 mean where he was from?

"Have you ever been to L2?" He asked nonchalantly, staring straight forwards. Ami began to say no, hoping to end the conversation, before a searing pain tore through her right calf.

She cried out and crouched down to grab it, releasing Trowa. He stumbled forwards a moment, before turning and surveying the area alertly. Ami wiped her bloody hands on her dress and examined the wound more closely, trying to figure out what had hit her.

"Did someone shoot at you?" Trowa asked reasonably, and Ami shrugged, knowing it wasn't a bullet. Possibly an energy attack since there was no evidence left behind....

Trowa stood and again surveyed the area. They were in the middle of nowhere. There were currently no trees or rocks even- nothing but flat ground spread hundreds of feet from where they stood apart from the mountain in the distance. There was certainly nowhere for an attacker to hide.

"Let's just keep moving," he said, picking her up without her permission and beginning to walk as fast as his injuries allowed.

"Hey," Ami said, "I can walk just fine, it's not that bad."

"We need to clear out of this area. I'll let you down when the bleeding stops."

"Your leg is injured," she pointed out, trying to find a way to get him to release his hold on her.

"It's fine," he said, and as the words left his mouth a strange feeling came over him. It was something like déjà vu, although it wasn't common for him to experience it. This feeling, now followed by a phrase which suddenly came to mind.

_"We need a survivor, at least for the first few days."_

Well, what do you think? Happy new years!


	2. Day 2

_Last Time_

"Hey," Ami said, "I can walk just fine, it's not that bad."

"We need to clear out of this area. I'll let you down when the bleeding stops."

"Your leg is injured," she pointed out, trying to find a way to get him to release his hold on her.

"It's fine," he said, and as the words left his mouth a strange feeling came over him. It was something like déjà vu, although it wasn't common for him to experience it. A feeling, followed by a sudden phrase which suddenly came to mind.

_"We need a survivor, at least for the first few days."_

Day 2

"A survivor," he murmured to himself. Ami stopped struggling in his arms and frowned at him.

"What are you talking about?"

Trowa chose not to respond, staring straight forwards and avoiding her eyes, a task made more difficult by the fact that her face was only a few inches from his.

She growled slightly, not at all pleased with the man who clearly thought he was the leader of their little partnership. If Ami didn't like anything, it was being disregarded by a man who obviously thought he was more intelligent than she was.

Trowa, still feeling her eyes on his face, finally turned his full attention to her. He stared at her calculatingly, as if he could figure her out just by looking at her. Ami opened her mouth to speak and closed it, as a blush began to creep up her cheeks.

Trowa smirked, and Ami immediately became infuriated and looked away, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring holes into his green sweater.

She was very entertaining; he'd never been so comfortable with anyone upon sight.

He turned his attention back to where they were headed, his smirk eventually fading as he became more serious.

The temperature was steadily dropping, and he feared that if the two of them didn't find someplace to stay before nightfall, they would freeze to death. Even now, the girl was ice cold in his grip.

If only there were trees anywhere, so he could make a fire or something. Worse yet was that he didn't have his gun on him.

"This is infuriating," Ami commented as they walked a few hours later. "It seems like this field stretches for many more miles. Why is there no wild life or even any grass for that matter?"

Ami was now walking on her own with a slight limp, knowing it wouldn't be right for Trowa to carry her the entire day.

Trowa shrugged, also beginning to feel the little hope he had within him die. Lifeless: that was what this land was. He'd never seen anything like it.

He glanced down at Ami and frowned. She had seemed perturbed about something since the morning. Did she also not remember anything?

"I was hanging out with some of my friends on L2 when all of this happened," he commented casually, staring straight forwards as he spoke. "I wonder where they are."

"Me too," Ami said. "In Tokyo, I mean. We were having lunch."

He contemplated what she said, before continuing. "It's funny though, I can't remember anything that happened to me after I left my house with my friends. That is, before I woke up here."

Ami's eyes widened at his statement and she stopped and looked at him.

"Unbelievable. I can't remember anything beyond lunch either!"

Trowa frowned. What could have happened to them? Why was a woman from Tokyo suffering from the strange amnesia he was? It didn't make any sense. It was possible that he had hit his head during his mission with the pilots and been kidnapped and left here to die. However, that scenario didn't factor Ami in. Was she a member of the cult they had been investigating whom had tried to get out? Was she the daughter of someone wealthy?

"If you don't mind me asking Ami, are you the daughter of anyone famous or wealthy?"

She shook her head. "No, why do you ask?"

"I'm trying to figure out why we were kidnapped," he explained. "Or whatever it is that happened to us."

She nodded, turning her attention back to where she was heading before gasping loudly and pointing to a spot about one hundred feet from where they stood.

"Trowa! Is that a body?" Trowa frowned and looked to where she was pointing, gasping as well when he saw that she was correct.

Ami began to rush towards the body as best as she could in her condition, but Trowa grabbed her wrist and stood still.

"Ami, that wasn't there a minute ago," he said stoically, and she frowned at him.

"That's impossible, we probably just weren't looking," she said, eying the figure dressed in black whom was unmoving as of yet. She wasn't sure if it was a man or a woman, but they clearly needed help and she had to do something. Perhaps they were in the same predicament she and Trowa were in. Or maybe it was on of her friends, or even Trowa's.

"I know it's impossible," he said, becoming more perturbed by the second. "But I'm telling you that there wasn't anyone there before."

"Trowa we have to do something. Stop imagining things," Ami retorted, pulling her wrist free. Trowa was making her nervous. So what if the body wasn't there before. Ami was sadly used to strange occurrences such as this. A body appearing from nowhere was definitely not enough to shake her.

She moved towards the body before he could catch her, leaving him no choice but to follow.

Trowa sighed as he followed. Had Ami ever listened to a single thing he`d said so far? No, and he had a feeling she wasn't about to start.

Once Ami neared the body she could see that it was a woman, with long brown hair flowing down her back and wearing a black dress. She was laying flat on her back and looked like she was sleeping except for the bruises on her face indicating that she may have been knocked out.

Ami crouched down next her and shook her slightly by the shoulder, smiling when the woman began to stir. She blinked open her eyes, revealing lovely chocolate brown orbs, and frowned.

"Hi, are you alright?" Ami asked, smiling and trying to make herself look friendly to distract from her blood covered appearance.

The woman however, didn't respond, as she seemed to be staring beyond Ami's crouched form. Ami figured she was staring at Trowa, but found that Trowa was standing on the other side of the woman, not behind herself.

She turned her attention back to the woman, whom was wide eyed and pointing meekly at something behind Ami. Trowa looked behind Ami was well, but as he suspected, nothing was there.

"Ami, this woman is out of her mind," Trowa said stiffly, gazing down at the woman with pity.

Ami shook her head. The woman saw something that was truly scaring her.

"What are you seeing?" Ami asked, and at her words the woman let out a blood curdling scream.

Ami gasped and fell backwards as the woman sat up and stretched her hands at Ami's face. The woman's face began to contort and twist as she continued to scream. Now afraid, Ami reached out to grab the woman's hand. She could see the fear in the woman's eyes, as if she were reliving an awful experience. What was more shocking was that as Ami tried to grab her hands, they passed right through her own.

"What?" Ami cried out, as Trowa's eyes widened at the sight.

The woman continued, crawling right through Ami as if she wasn't there. She continued past Ami, screaming still as she began to run and fade into thin air as if she'd never been there.

Ami shuddered as an extreme cold passed through her like she'd never felt, collapsing and grabbing her chest.

Trowa dropped to his knees, staring from where Ami to lay to where the woman had disappeared in shock.

A moment later, Ami felt two arms encircle her and realized it was Trowa helping her off the ground. Rather than release her, he wrapped her in a hug and stood a moment, the two of them shaking.

"I don't believe in ghosts," he said after a minute. "This place is messing with my head."

"M-mine too," Ami said, as Trowa released his grip on her.

No sooner had he done that then it began to snow. The two of them looked up at the sky and Trowa gave a sigh, now beyond aggravated at what was happening to them.

"We're going to die here."

"Trowa, don't say that," Ami said, thinking of her friends when she tried to remain hopeful.

"Ami," Trowa said heatedly. "We haven't eaten in two days. We're not wearing adequate clothing for the cold, and now it's snowing. Plus, we're in the middle of a field with no grass, coincidentally, that doesn't end. Plus, we're both injured and we haven't found any help yet, so our wounds are probably infected by now. We'll die from that alone. Or we're probably going to starve to death or die of thirst or be found having frozen to death in a couple of days."

Ami stared at him, shock written all over her face, not just at his grim outlook but at the fact that he had spoken without interruption for so long.

"Trowa," she said tentatively, gaining confidence as she spoke. "All of that may be true, but we're not dead yet."

"You're right. Not yet," he said, sighing as he remembered the phrase which had been haunting him that whole day. He was a survivor. Surely that was what was meant by that phrase. He would soon be regaining his memories and this whole mess would be settled.

"Let's keep going. Maybe we'll find some shelter by nightfall. We have to," he added, watching as the snow continued to get heavier.

Ami nodded, wrapping her arms around herself and beginning to walk. Trowa caught up to her quickly and slung his am around her shoulders.

"It's nothing personal," he said with a shrug. "We'll both be warmer this way."

* * *

Three hours later, it was beginning to get dark. However, Ami and Trowa were more hopeful than before. There was some grass in the area they were walking into, and they had also found some trees here and there. The two of them had been tearing off small branches as they walked with the hope of using them for a fire, but the branches were getting wet from the snow as they walked.

"This is getting useless," Trowa said with a frown. "We need to find shelter now. We'll freeze to death tonight."

"Well I-" Ami froze, turning back around.

"It's stopped snowing."

"Well that's good news," Trowa said, before he began to realize what Ami meant. The snow covered ground beneath their feet was now stone, and Ami tapped her feet on it as if she were imagining things. The area around them had changed.

High walls surrounded them, as if they were in an enclosed space. It was no longer cold. Ami looked to her left and gasped, as a huge stone castle towered before them. The sun was just beginning to set here, and for a moment Ami felt at peace. Trowa's mouth however was hanging open.

"This isn't possible."

"It's beautiful," Ami contradicted, not minding the change in atmosphere.

That was before the screams started.

A loud uproar began from inside the castle, and men and women came running out in hordes.

"What's happening," Ami shouted, before all of them came running past Ami and Trowa, separating them.

"Trowa!" She shouted, as more people came between them all in equal panic. People rushing past her knocked her to the floor since she wasn't moving, and she screamed and tried to get up as more people came running by. They were all headed for the drawbridge in the wall, which was beginning to lower.

Two arms pulled from the ground, and Ami realized Trowa had fought through the crowd to find her.

"Thanks," she breathed, never having been so happy to see him. Her happiness was short lived as a shout was heard over the crowd's screams.

"Don't let them lower the drawbridge men! Every one of these people is going to the dungeon! Raise that drawbridge!"

Several men in leather armor shouted at the crowd and took control of the drawbridge, closing it. The crowd cried in fear and obediently began to obey the soldiers whom were forcing them to line up, one line for men and another for women.

"Separate immediately! Men and women in separate lines!"

Ami realized a soldier was yelling at them when the two were yanked apart.

Trowa fought the man who had him off, causing three more soldiers to have to jump in and restrain him.

"This one's strong! Knock him out and throw him in with the rest!"

Ami was dragged to the women's line, and thrown to the ground. The last thing she remembered was feeling her head smack the stone ground beneath her and look up at the scared faces of the women around her.

* * *

"She's waking up," a high pitched voice said to her right.

"Wha-" Ami muttered, blinking open her eyes and seeing only darkness. A moment later, her eyes began to adjust to the dark.

She saw several figures all around her, many unmoving and probably sleeping. A woman to her right shook her, and as she spoke Ami realized it was the same woman whom had spoken before.

"Pretty brave of you and your husband to try and take on the soldiers. You're not from around here, are you? I'll tell you something, if you were looking for shelter you chose the wrong castle. Lucky that Lord Jamison didn't have your head; he's not exactly known for his civility when he overtakes land."

Ami sat up a bit, her head feeling like she had been beat with a baseball bat, and frowned at the woman. They thought Trowa was her husband? Well, it was clear that men and women didn't travel together alone in this time unless they were married....

"Lord Jamison?"

"Yes. Hmm, you are most definitely a traveler being that you don't know the politics of our area. Lord Jamison is rival to our good Lord Byron. The two are constantly usurping land in the nearby area. Last week though, the lords Byron and Jamison wanted the same piece of land, and well, here we are. I hope Lord Jamison hasn't killed our poor Lord Byron," the woman said as an afterthought, scratching her head.

Now that Ami had a better look at the woman, she could see that she was very old. Her surroundings indicated that she was in a dungeon of some sort, although she couldn't really see. No one was chained up, however there were far too many women in here for that to be possible. Where was Trowa? She hoped they hadn't hurt him considering....considering where they were.

A thought occurred to Ami as she sat, suddenly making the scenario seem clear. Not what had happened to them, she still didn't remember that of course. However, she remembered that over five years ago, she and the scouts had gotten lost in the gates of time. Were she and Trowa lost in a dimension within the gates of time? Roaming and moving from time to time, place to place. It all made sense.

Why hadn't anyone searched the gates of time for them yet, if they truly were lost somewhere like that? However, if she was right, that meant that many more dangers awaited her and Trowa. It still didn't explain why she couldn't remember most of the previous day though. What had happened to them the other day?

* * *

Trowa ignored the men talking politics around him, tugging at the ropes that were currently confining him to a corner of the cell. He understood what was happening pretty well by now, but it mattered very little to him at the moment. How the hell had he and Ami ended up here anyways? Was he dreaming? The last few days were challenging everything he knew about the word 'impossible' and its many uses.

Apparently, he had knocked out two of the four men trying to contain him, hence the ropes confining him. This cell was quite large, and no one but him was tied up, as they all shot him untrusting glances and continued to mutter among themselves.

A crack of light lit up the cell, and he realized that someone was coming downstairs. The metal of the cell groaned as it was pushed open, revealing four figures. Preparing himself for another fight, he was surprised when a man in somewhat expensive clothing entered the cell, carrying a torch. Three soldiers stood behind him, all heavily armed and also carrying torches.

The other inhabitants of the cell shrunk away, staring from Trowa to the man in clear fear.

The man walked up to Trowa with a confident stride, crossing his arms and staring at him a moment.

A smile came to his face and he nodded, before speaking.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

Trowa shrugged, watching him carefully. What did he want?

The man laughed, and continued.

"Perhaps I should introduce myself. I am Lord Jamison, leader of the soldiers who took this castle under siege. The previous ruler of this castle was Lord Byron, but I'm afraid he's currently tied up."

The men around him groaned at his words, and Jamison snarled.

"You ungrateful pigs! I spared all of your lives and simply imprisoned you. Would you rather I hired you on for slave work on my land?"

The room grew quiet, and he nodded.

"Back to the point. Lord Byron and I will be coming to agreement on how he's going to get his little castle back. He's going to give me all the land he's beat me to in the past, and my soldiers and I will leave this castle be. You however, seem to be more worth my time than the rest of these men. Your wife and you arrived only a few minutes before we attacked, dressed in strange clothes of another land. You interest me. Plus, you knocked out two of my armed men in less than a second. That's impressive. You leave me no choice but to give you a very exclusive offer."

Trowa stared at the man critically, before nodding for him to continue.

"I could use a strong man like you on my side. Plus, you look smart. My men are completely incompetent when it comes to using their heads. Before you answer, I'd like to remind you that it could take days for Lord Byron and I to come to agreement. Do you want to spend them in a cell?"

"If I join you, does my wife go free?"

Lord Jamison laughed, before speaking.

"Sir, your wife is safer in the cell than wandering the castle during negotiations. My men get a little rowdy you see. Of course they do quite often raid the cells when we lay a land under siege."

Trowa glared and the remaining occupants of the cell began shouting.

"Silence! Or you'll all be killed!"

The men obeyed, and Lord Jamison rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Alright. No man of mine will raid the women's cell f you join me."

If he joined him, he would be allowed free reign through the castle. Perhaps then he could free Ami and the two could get out of the area.

"Fine," Trowa said, nodding. "Why don't you have my new comrades untie me?"

The lord laughed, and nodded, while his men seethed from behind him.

"You're a funny one Mr....I never caught your name."

"Barton."

"Mr. Barton. Does a first name come with that?"

"Trowa Barton."

"Excellent, now untie Mr. Barton and get him some fresh clothes and leather armor. Mr. Barton, once you're ready I want you upstairs, patrolling Lord Byron and his men with the others."

With that, the lord left the cell and the remaining soldiers untied him.

"Traitor," a man muttered as Trowa walked out.

Trowa stopped and looked at him.

"I just saved your wives and daughters from being raped," he said, glaring at the man. "Think."

The man opened his mouth to respond and shut it again as Trowa and the soldiers filed out of the cell and locked the door.

* * *

Trowa, after refusing the several pieces of clothing, all which looked like tights and dresses to him, chose to remain in his ripped jeans. He had been given an opportunity to wash up, one which he was sure Ami might have killed for, and had only accepted a white shirt. It was quite fascinating in that it had a drawstring around the collar to keep it circular.

Then he was given the leather armor the other men wore, surprised at how much heavier it was than it looked. Finally, a disgruntled soldier gave him a sword and shield.

"Come meet us upstairs once you're all dressed," he snapped, leaving Trowa alone. Clearly, the soldier was bitter at having Trowa as part of the team.

Trowa nodded, although he wasn't doing what the soldier had asked. He had to find Ami, and get the two as far away as possible.

Putting on the armor to blend with the rest of the soldiers, grabbing the sword and shield and being met with a maze as soon as he opened the door. The castle was comprised of several long stone hallways, and Trowa firstly had no idea how to get up or down from here. Torches lined the walls, since it was getting dark. A rumbling of his stomach reminded him that he should try and grab some food for himself and Ami before they left. They hadn't eaten in two days after all.

He began walking down the hall. A few soldiers passing by nodded at him and he nodded back, keeping his stride confident. Should anyone see doubt in his eyes, he was sure that they would ask him where he was headed.

He passed by several closed doors, not checking any of them unless he was sure that there were no soldiers watching him. The kitchen, where would the kitchen be? He'd probably better focus on finding Ami first. Good thing Trowa was excellent at infiltrating enemy bases and disguising himself from the war.

Seeing a darkened open doorway, he grabbed a torch from the wall and lit the entry. It was a pair of winding stairs, and he was positive it led to the dungeons. It definitely wasn't the men's dungeon, since he had come that way and knew it was on the opposite side.

He went quietly down the steps, carrying the torch to guide him.

Once he reached the bottom, he could see that he was correct. He could see the figures of many women sleeping in the cell, and outside the cell sat a soldier guarding them. Did he have the keys?

The soldier was currently asleep, and from the light of the torch Trowa could now see the glint of the keys. They were currently just clutched in his hand, which was rested on his large gut. He had removed his armor and was slumped in a wooden chair which looked far too small to support his weight. Loud snores from the soldier were the only sound in the room.

It was clear why this man was guarding the women's cell.

Quietly, Trowa approached the man. He began to reach for the keys, pulling his hand back quickly when the soldier's eyes flew open.

The soldier leapt from his chair, gasping and grabbing at his sword, while the keys clanked to the floor.

He quickly noticed Trowa's armor and stopped, nodding.

"My apologies."

Trowa shrugged and nodded, and the man stopped to listen.

"Lord Jamison is tired and Byron is sleeping under watch from our guards. Negotiations are currently not moving, so you may choose a room upstairs and sleep for a few hours while I cover for you," Trowa lied, adding "That is unless of course, you'd prefer to sleep on the job?" He spoke with authority, causing the man to gulp and nod, standing.

"Of course Sir, I'll be only a few hours." He hurried up the steps, and Trowa immediately picked up the forgotten keys. They were quite large and rusty, but there were only three of them so it wouldn't be difficult to figure out which one was correct.

After trying the first one, the second key opened the door. He slid it open as quietly as possible, careful not to wake any of the other sleeping women and face their questions.

Holding his torch into the air, he searched for the familiar blue before spotting Ami sleeping to the left of the cell. Putting out the torch, he slipped inside quietly and carefully made his was into the cell, avoiding the women strewn out all over the floor. His idea was to just pick up Ami and wake her outside the cell to avoid making any noise; however her eyes flew open before he could grab her. She looked like she was about to scream, and he quickly covered her mouth with his hand and began to pick her up.

She squinted at him and immediately realized who it was, allowing him to pick her up off the ground and carry her out of the cell. He set her down once he had stepped out and began to close the cell gate.

"Hey," Ami whispered, grabbing his arm. "What are you doing? We have to help these people!"

"They're safer in here. Trust me. They're negotiating upstairs and the man who laid siege to the castle is not planning on hurting these people."

Ami stared at him a second, debating whether Trowa was telling the truth or trying to get her to comply and leave. She went with the first, nodding and allowing him to shut the gate.

Would the men try to raid the women's cells once Lord Jamison knew he was lying? Trowa pocketed the keys. Even if Jamison's men tried to get into the cell, they wouldn't be able to. Besides, once Byron had his castle back, he was sure he would have an extra set of keys.

"You're a little too good at this stuff. Are you in the army or something?" Ami whispered as they headed upstairs.

"Something like that," he said, walking ahead and looking out into the hall to make sure the coast was clear. "Let's go."

The two stepped into the hall and began quickly and quietly making their way down it.

"Hey," Ami hissed as the passed beneath a torch and she got a good look at him. "Where'd you get the clean shirt and armor? Did you wash up? This isn't fair!"

"Ami, be quiet," Trowa reprimanded, having to stop himself from laughing. "We have to get out of here! I had time that you don't!"

"Well, before we leave we need to at least get some water," Ami told him.

"The soldier's quarters might have some canteens, but if we go back there we'll probably get caught again," he noted, glancing around.

"You're dressed liek them. Why would you get caught?" Ami asked.

"I was supposed to go upstairs and guard the room outside where they're having negotiations. They'll come looking for me any minute," he explained.

"Well," Ami sighed. "Let's just focus on getting out of here then. If we find some along the way, fine."

He nodded, and the two continued down the hall, stopping every few seconds as Trowa looked around.

They reached the end of the hall, where there was another door. Trowa stepped forwards since he was dressed like the soldiers and cracked open the door. It was empty.

"Go in, there may be a window we can climb out of," Trowa said, as the two hurried inside and shut the door.

The room was dark since they didn't have a torch, so Trowa snuck back out into the hall and grabbed one of the torches hanging on the wall. He came back inside and lit up the room. The room was quite large, obviously belonging to someone of importance. There was a large basin of water on the opposite end of the room, and it occurred to Ami that someone may have been about to bathe before the attack, because the water inside was still lukewarm.

Trowa approached from behind her and peered inside.

"That looks clean if you still want to at least wash your face."

"I most definitely do, but how do I know it's clean?"

"Because it looks clean and we have to be out of here in a couple of minutes," he replied flatly, and Ami nodded immediately. She hurriedly washed her face and arms, Trowa grabbing her a cloth to dry off with. She dipped the cloth in the basin when she was finished and hurriedly cleaned off the remaining blood on the cut on her collar bone, which was healing quite nicely.

Trowa meanwhile was checking for a window in the room, and was let down when he realized there wasn't one.

"Ami, come on, this was a waste of time. There isn't a window," he said, heading towards the door.

"This was definitely not a waste of time, I feel clean at least," she said, and he smirked as he peered outside the door. The coast was still clear.

The two quickly exited the room and went left down the adjoining hallway, and Ami ran into Trowa's back when he stopped suddenly. He backed up and pushed her behind him as the footsteps coming down the hall became more prominent.

"You! You were supposed to be upstairs!" The shouting came from the man whom had given Trowa his armor before.

"He freed his wife as well!" Another man Trowa hadn't seen shouted from behind the first. A third man held out his sword at the two.

"Damn it," Trowa muttered, drawing his sword.

"Don't tell me you can swordfight too," Ami hissed.

"Not exactly, but I'm pretty sure I can take these three out," he replied, as the two backed up.

The three men charged, Trowa meeting the first one head on as the sound of their swords clashing together resonated through the hall.

The second man also rushed at Trowa, but before Ami could help him the third one had tackled her to the ground, smirking as he stared at his friends fighting Trowa. His smirk faded immediately as he saw Trowa kick the sword from the hands of the second man and knock the first man off of him, before knocking out the second man. The first man charged at him again however Trowa was ready for him, and he slashed at the man's right hand, causing him to cry out and drop the sword. A split second later he was unconscious, Trowa having punched him out.

The final soldier on top of Ami scrambled to his feet, trying to run away. Trowa caught up to him, and a moment later he was unconscious as well.

"You couldn't let him get away?" Ami questioned, getting off the ground and staring at Trowa oddly.

"He would have gotten help. We have to get out of here," he said evenly. Ami nodded, curious as to whom exactly Trowa was as they began walking again.

"_Who do you think you are anyways?" _

Ami stopped walking, frowning. Where had that come from? Who had said it? The memory had been as if from her own voice, but she'd never said anything like that as far as she could remember.

"Ami, what's wrong? Look, I'm sorry if I scared you but I had to stop that guy," Trowa said impatiently, glancing around the hallway.

"N-no, it's okay. I'm not scared. I should thank you," she said, waving the thought from her mind. "Let's go."

He nodded as the two took off running down the hall.

"Hey, hold on," Ami said, stopping a few minutes later. "There's another open door here. Is this where you came from with the men?"

"No," Trowa said. "It was on the other side."

"Let's check it out," Ami said, rushing inside and down the steps.

"Ami wait, you're not even in disguise," Trowa said, following her.

Ami peered into the darkened area, and seeing no movement she finished the remaining steps and entered the empty, small area.

"There's another door," she said, pointing so Trowa could see. "I think it goes outside!"

True to Ami's words, there was a small window in the door that was letting moonlight into the small room.

She pulled at the door and frowned. "It's locked."

Trowa frowned as well, before he remembered the dungeon keys he had pocketed.

"Here," he said, pulling out the keys and trying one of the three, frowning when it didn't work and moving on to the next to. The final key he tried worked, the wooden door swinging open with a creak.

It was dark, but it was outside. The two began to run immediately, only stopping to catch a breath after they'd cleared over five hundred feet and no one could see them.

Ami turned to look at the castle and gasped when she saw that it was no longer there.

Trowa was silent as he stared from where the castle used to be to where they were.

"Did we just imagine that?"

"No," Ami said, shaking her head. "See for yourself. You're still wearing the leather armor."

Trowa frowned.

"Where the hell are we?"

Ami shrugged. "I have a theory. But for now, I'm exhausted. Can we find somewhere to sleep?"

Trowa nodded. It was difficult in the dark....

"What if we slept here?"

"I'm concerned that if we sleep here, we'll wake up somewhere else tomorrow," he responded, scratching his head. "This is difficult." At his words, it began to snow.

A sigh of aggravation escaped his lips. Ami bit her lip, attempting to stay positive.

"Is that a cave over there?" Ami asked, surveying the area.

"A cave?"

He followed where she was pointing, nodding.

"Ami, with our luck there'll be a wild animal in there."

She laughed despite the situation, the two having warmed up a lot to each other in the last two days.

The two headed towards the cave, a fierce wind mixing in with the snow.

Ten minutes later they stood outside of it, peering inside.

"It seems okay," Ami offered, shivering from the cold. "I mean, it'll still be cold, but we can't spend another evening outside."

He nodded. "You're right."

They entered the cave, the howling wind beating at the cave and also blowing inside.

"I don't want to go to deep in the cave Ami. It might not be safe in here," Trowa explained. "No telling how sturdy it is...."

She nodded.

The wind howled as the two chose an area they wanted to sleep in, however that moment of peace didn't last long.

A crash resonated through the cave, and the two leapt to their feet.

"What was that?" Ami asked, frowning.

"Let's just get out of here," Trowa said.

"We'll freeze to death outside Trowa," Ami reasoned frightfully, ushering up at the roof of the cave which echoed the sounds of the snow, which was turning into a blizzard, and wind outside.

Something black whizzed past Trowa's face, and he frowned and reached out towards it, frowning.

"What?" Ami asked.

"I'm just seeing shadows," he said, before Ami saw a black figure run past her as well.

"Hey," she leapt away, as the two saw the so called 'shadow' turn to face them.

"This is my cave travelers," the being, whatever it chose to be called, spoke, now illuminated by the moonlight from outside. It had red orbs for eyes and you could only see that it had a mouth when it spoke. What was worse was that it had a high pitched child-like voice.

In Ami's opinion, it was demonic.

She backed towards Trowa, and the being smirked. It laid against Trowa's shield from the castle, falling right through it and laughing with delight.

"Oh my God I am way too exhausted for this," Ami breathed.

"You two are an interesting pair! I haven't seen people here for thousands of years! What brings you here?"

It leapt to its feet, and was in front of Ami in a second, placing its hand on her head.

"What are you doing?" She questioned frantically, as the being spoke.

"Interesting, very interesting. I never would have guessed you were capable of all that," it murmured.

"Let go of her," Trowa seethed, grabbing the arm of the being. Surprisingly, it was currently solid.

"As you wish," it replied, releasing her head. Ami's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she crumpled to the floor.

"What did you do to her?" Trowa growled.

"The same thing I'm about to do to you," it explained calmly, reaching out to touch Trowa's shoulder.

"Even more interesting," it noted, reading his memories.

"Really?" Trowa asked, pulling out his sword and slicing the being in half before it could blink.

It released him, beginning to fade into the air as it gasped out "how?"

"You're only solid when you want to be, like when you grabbed on to Ami," Trowa said with a shrug as it disappeared.

Shaking his head, he reached down and picked up the shivering Ami. Was this what hell was like? No. He didn't think Ami would be here with him.

He leaned against the cave's wall to try and sleep, keeping Ami in his arms for both protection should there be anything left in the cave and warmth since she would probably freeze if he left her on the ground. This way she'd at least be shielded from the wind and cold.

Tomorrow they had to talk. They wouldn't survive under these conditions. They needed food and water. They needed decent shelter.

They needed most of all to get home or else lose their sanity here.

* * *

Please review everyone!


	3. Day 3

Last Time:

_He leaned against the cave's wall to try and sleep, keeping Ami in his arms for both protection should there be anything left in the cave and warmth since she would probably freeze if he left her on the ground. This way she'd at least be shielded from the wind and cold._

_Tomorrow they had to talk. They wouldn't survive under these conditions. They needed food and water. They needed decent shelter._

_They needed most of all to get home or else lose their sanity here._

Day 3

Ami blinked open her eyes, feeling...warm. It definitely wasn't the feeling she was expecting. In fact, Ami was sure that she might not survive the cold or wake up very sick that morning.

As her vision cleared, she moved to sit up and was surprised when her hands touched something other than the cold ground.

Covering her mouth to suppress a shocked scream, she very quickly realized she was basically sleeping in Trowa's lap. Actually, she wasn't sure how to get up without waking him up. A blush tinged her cheeks as she quickly remembered what had happened the night before. That shadow demon had read her memories, and then all had gone black. She was positive that Trowa had taken care of it, how she wasn't sure.

Now to analyze the next part: why she was in his lap. Well, that didn't take a genius either. He was probably afraid that something else might be in the cave, hence the protection of him holding her. The thought made her blush more. She was definitely not the damsel in distress type. Then of course there was the fact that she was wearing a summer dress while there was a blizzard raging outside. She would have frozen to death without body heat. Right. Perfectly natural.

Glancing back up at him, she saw that he was sleeping quite peacefully. His head was leaned back against the cave wall, tipped slightly away from her. She took a moment to study his features. He was incredibly handsome actually. Here she was, obviously looking like garbage after everything they'd been through. Trowa however, looked perfectly composed, as if he were made for this kind of lifestyle. The thought that he probably wouldn't pay her a second glance if they had passed each other on the street crossed her mind, and suddenly she felt like the world's worst burden.

If Ami wasn't blushing before, she was certainly blushing when Trowa opened his eyes and caught her staring at him. Typical. The man didn't even need a second to really wake up. Not a sound. When he opened his eyes, he was wide awake.

"Oh...um...good morning?" She offered this meekly, and he smirked.

"I hope you don't mind our sleeping arrangements," he began when he saw her blushing.

"N-no, I understand. Thank you," she stammered, hoping he would drop it. He nodded, releasing her. Ami began to get off of him but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back onto his lap, frowning.

"Huh?" Ami said, frowning as he began staring at her chest pointedly. Her blush returned full force when he reached towards her.

"Trowa, what are you-" she began, but he shook his head, touching instead the necklace he had just noticed on her neck. It was a simple silver chain with a small crystal hanging on it; however it wasn't the style he was staring at.

"You weren't wearing this last night," he commented with a frown, lifting it off her chest slightly and examining it.

"You're right about that," she said, as the disgusting thought of someone putting the necklace on her while she was sleeping, in Trowa's lap no less, came to mind.

By the look on Ami's face, he was sure she was thinking what he was. Who had been in the cave with them? More beings like the one he had killed last night? What kind of message were they tying to send? Well, that message actually was clear. They weren't safe while they were sleeping.

Looking next to him, he realized that his sword was gone as well. Ami glanced back down at the necklace, her frown returning. It wasn't a simple crystal. The necklace was of a crescent moon. An upside down crescent moon hung off the chain. This necklace had something to do with one of her enemies, she was positive of that now.

Trowa now paid more attention to the necklace style. It was an upside down crescent moon- the exact symbol of the cult he had been investigating.

"Do you know what this symbol means?" He asked suspiciously.

"No," she said flatly. He stared at her a moment, her staring back with equal suspicion, before they quickly stood.

Ami took off the necklace, passing it to Trowa. He threw it on the floor of the cave and nodded for her to leave.

She nodded as well, the two quickly clearing the cave and heading outside. It was warmer today and not snowing, about fifty degrees Fahrenheit if Ami was guessing right.

Trowa walked quickly through the remaining snow, pulling Ami along with him as he tried to clear the area as fast as possible.

Fifteen minutes later, Ami was already exhausted.

"Trowa, slow down," Ami said, trying to pull her hand free. "This is too much. We barely just woke up."

"Ami, we have to get out of here," he said, not stopping.

"We're pretty far already," she said, continuing to try and pull free. "A few more minutes and we'll pass out of this area and into one that I don't think we can be followed in."

"Why do you say that?"

"It's like we're crossing through different times. Some stuff is supernatural, granted, but I think we're walking in and out of them here. Look, it's getting warmer and warmer as we walk, that must be a sign," Ami said.

"You might be right, but just to be safe we're going to keep at this pace until we've totally cleared the area," he responded, not releasing his grip on her.

"Trowa can you at least let me go, I can't keep up with your pace right now," Ami defended, becoming infuriated with him quickly.

"You have to keep up with my pace," he said. "We currently have no protection should another one of those shadow-like beings choose to attack us."

Ami gave an angry sigh, too thirsty and hungry to keep up with Trowa. He was clearly in the army. A leader in the army; he had to be from how bossy he was.

Normally, people couldn't live without water for more than two days. Ami frowned. That meant that if they didn't get any water today, they would probably not make it to nightfall.

* * *

A desert. Unbelievable. A desert, right after they had come out of the snow. One second, Ami had been ankle deep in snow, considering eating it and debating whether or not it would make her sick. The next second, she was knee deep in sand. Hot sand. Anyone watching would have been laughing at the two of them.

The two had been trudging for over two hours in the sweltering heat. If Ami hadn't remembered how thirsty she was before, she definitely did now.

Trowa had lost the heavy leather armor an hour and a half ago, and his shirt had been lost about a half an hour ago, although he couldn't remember when exactly.

He'd thought that this might perhaps make Ami blush like usual, however she was apparently too dehydrated by now to care.

Glancing down at her, he could see she wasn't holding up well. She was gasping for air and moving very slowly. He understood. It was all too much.

"Do you need help?" He panted, stopping to rest his hands on his knees and breathe.

"No," she breathed, "if you have to help me then you probably won't be able to help yourself either."

"Well we have to keep moving. This desert should end like every other terrain we've been in," Trowa said, beginning to move again.

Ami gave a strained nod, also beginning to move forwards again. It wasn't five minutes before she tried had slowed again, although this time Trowa seemed to be with her.

"Please, let's just take a break," she gasped, collapsing. Trowa had no objections, having sunk to his knees already. His hands rested on his legs as he tried to regain his breath.

Ami shook the sand from her hair and placed her hands on the hot earth and tried to gain some momentum to stand. Her hands instead gave out, allowing her to once again hit the sand. It was no use; she was far too weak with the lack of food and water. Medically speaking, she had no more energy for her body to work with. She knew that, but with all the dangers that Ami had faced as a Senshi, it seemed pathetic that she would die of thirst.

Trowa began to stand, but the strain was too much on him and he ended up sitting back down, panting. He was a survivor. Surely, that was what those words had referred to. He had fought in wars, had killed several people and had also nearly been killed many times. That was how he had always imagined dying. Fighting, trying, or at least doing something worth his death. Currently, he was stranded in a desert, which was not exactly as picturesque as he had imagined.

Another thought crossed Ami's mind. What about her friends? Could she leave this earth never knowing what had happened to them or where they were? Or for that matter, why she was even here? What if her friends were already dead? The thought relaxed her in preparation for her coming death and plagued her at the same time. They couldn't be dead.

Perhaps his friends were alive, maybe even in a similar predicament. Maybe, they were somewhere in this strange place. If his friends were dead though, he was sure it would have been honorable. He hoped that unlike him, they were fighting or trying to help someone. What was he doing? The answer came to him immediately. He _was _helping someone. He was helping Ami. In fact, he was giving up and letting them die. No more.

Ami glanced next to her, frowning as she noticed Trowa attempting to stand.

"Just relax Trowa," she said, "let's at least go peacefully."

"Ami," he panted, managing to get to his feet as she stared at him with wonder for standing. "If we're going to die, we're going to go kicking and screaming." He stared at her pointedly, a newfound strength in his eyes although she wasn't sure where it had come from. "I was never all that loud in life so I think it's only fitting that I am now while I can."

She nodded, somehow finding the strength to get to her knees although she didn't know she had it. Trowa looked impressed.

"Can you stand?" He grabbed her by the arms and somehow had the strength to pull her to her feet, where she stood by herself.

Ami knew where their strength had come from. The will to live had never been stronger in her than it was right now. If she was going to die, it wouldn't be like this, not without a fight.

* * *

A cool wind blew threw the area for the first time that afternoon, and ten minutes later it happened again, repeating for about an hour. Ami was since then convinced that the area they were in was changing from a desert.

The two stood in wonder as the cold wind somehow seemed to make the desert disappear bit by bit as they walked. Soon, they were standing in a rural area. There was grass. There were trees. There were farms in the distance. They could even hear the sound of birds. It was a dream come true.

Before them sat a beautiful temple, the grass now filled with cherry blossom trees. Huge steps lead up to its doors, giving it a great likeness to Rei's temple.

"Where are we?" Trowa said with a cough.

"It looks like we're in Japan, although we're just in the countryside. I wonder what city is nearby, or what year it is?" Ami wondered.

"Well, you two look like you've been through an ordeal," a voice behind them mused. The two frowned, turning to see a short old woman wearing the clothes of a Shinto priestess. Her hair was in a bun at the nape of her neck and it was stark white. Her eyes were deep brown, reflecting knowledge beyond what was expected of her.

"Let's see," she mused, circling them before stopping at the wooden gate of the temple. "Dressed in western clothes like the city folk from nearby Kyoto, but looking like you've been to hell and back. You look worse off than our workers in the countryside. I'm interested."

She pushed open the gate, looking back at them and smiling. "The temple is always open to those who have lost their way or need help. You may come in if you'd like. It looks like you could use some water and food." She paused, staring at them once more. "Can you make it up all those steps or will I have to carry you?"

A hollow laugh escaped Ami's lips, the priestess's humor reminding her somewhat of Rei. The two began the trudge up the steps after the small woman, the offer of water too tempting to turn down.

At the top of the steps, more trees surrounded the walkway to the front. The priestess open the door and stepped back, ushering for them to enter.

"The guest kitchen is on the right. I tell you this because I'm assuming you're not here to pray right now, correct?"

The two nodded eccentrically, and she smirked and once more ushered for them to enter. They didn't need to be asked twice, already making a beeline for the kitchen.

She followed them, pointing at the table for them to sit at as she grabbed some classes and poured water for them. The two began to drink it immediately, hardly gasping out their requests for refills. She complied, well aware of their condition.

Taking a seat at the table across from them, she placed her chin on her hands as she watched them.

After having her fill of water, Ami put aside her next few problems of hunger and fatigue and remembered her manners.

"Thank you so much for your kindness. My name is Ami Mizuno. This is Trowa…." Ami frowned as she realized she didn't know Trowa's last name.

The priestess didn't seem perturbed by the lack of Trowa's last name, and Ami realized why when she began to speak.

"I'm Saori. So what happened to you and your husband?"

So the priestess had assumed that Trowa's last name was also Mizuno.

The two blushed and looked at the floor in opposite directions, now having been mistaken for being married for the second time in the last two days. Of course, it only made sense. Well….depending on what year it was….

Knowing that Saori was watching their every move, Ami turned back to her.

"We're just…coming from the capital. We were robbed and our car was stolen. We've been walking all day with the hopes of reaching Kyoto, but all we've seen is countryside," Ami lied, hoping it was a time when cars were somewhat common.

Trowa stared at Ami, somewhat impressed.

"Hm," this seemed enough for Saori, who began to speak. "That's terrible. Were you both injured as well? Your dress is covered I blood."

She pointed at Ami, who blanched a moment before Trowa cut in.

"Yes. I patched her up as best I could but we didn't have a change of clothing for her."

"Ah, so you must be a doctor. No wonder you work in the capital. Yes, crime rates are up and now our government just wants to fight with everyone. We declared war on Germany last week, we're getting made at China and the Soviet's, we're made at the U.S- it's all downhill from here…"

Ami began panicking. It was World War II. She had to think. What year was Hiroshima bombed? When were the other cities bombed? Was Kyoto bombed?

No. It was before the bombings. It was before the invasion of Pearl Harbor. It was before the Soviets fought Japan and before Japan invaded China. She had said that war was declared on Germany the week before, which if Ami remembered her history from class, meant that it was….1939. September 1939.

"Yes," Ami agreed, nodding. Now she was worried. Did this mean that Saori's town would be destroyed less than six years from now? No. also not possible, since Kyoto was never bombed in the war. The U.S had considered it, since Japan's greatest thinkers had been in Kyoto, but they never bombed them.

Trowa stared between the two. He didn't know any of this history at all. Did Ami know what this woman was talking about?

"The situation is worsening every day I fear," Saori continued.

"Yes, I think Japan is going to fall on some very hard times the next few years," Ami said. Saori nodded, and Trowa decided he'd probably better ask Ami about his later. Besides, they still had theories about where they were to talk about.

"Well, here's what I can do for you," Saori said, standing. "We'll get you something to eat, and then you may go wash up and stay the night in the guest quarters. I also have some Western styled clothing for the two of you if you wish, many of my previous guests have left behind clothes, and I generally don't know what to do with them. At least you'll take some off of my hands- we can't have you looking like that when you finally head into Kyoto and see the police. Besides, I'm sure your husband would like a shirt," Saori added, causing Ami to blush once more.

* * *

That evening, Ami and Trowa had eaten, washed up, and been given a fresh set of clothes.

Saori had given Ami a pale blue dress, which Ami assumed was everyday western wear here. It's was very simple, the sleeves stopping just above her elbows and had a rounded collar. The waist was fitted and the dress scrunched slightly underneath the bust. From her hips the dress flowed away from body slightly and reached just beneath her knees. Upon looking at the dress, it was obvious it was from a different time; however it was rather funny to Ami that so much of her clothing in the 21st century was so inspired by the years before. She was sure she could find a dress like this made of a slightly lighter material in the mall back home.

Saori had also attempted to give Trowa a suit, which he had refused. Finally, the two had settled on the most casual thing she had fro him- a pair of slacks and a cream button down shirt.

"A man of your stature should be dressed appropriately," she had protested until he had accepted the slacks.

It was around nine o'clock and the two really needed to talk.

"Saori, we're going for a walk. We'll only be gone a few minutes," Ami said to the woman, whom was setting up the bedroom for the two of them.

She glanced up, and smiled.

"This bed should be fine for the both of you, correct?" Ami looked away and nodded. Saori smirked. " I myself am tired, so I will be heading off to sleep. I will be up early tomorrow. You may rise when you please, and then I'll explain to you how exactly to get to Kyoto from here. Oh- and there are some sleeping garments on that chair over there," Saori added, beginning to leave the room. She stoppe din front of Trowa and grabbed his wrist.

"Let yourselves in when you come back, but be careful not to stay out long. This may be the countryside, but it really isn't safe to be out here at night. We've had some trouble with crime the last few years. I guess we really are too close to the city," she warned, heading off to her room.

Ami and Trowa glanced at each other, not phased by what she said.

The two headed down the steps, beginning to quietly discuss their current situation.

"Like I said this morning, I think we're moving from different time streams." Ami blurted out.

Trowa continued to walk, glancing down at her as they rounded the corner and headed down the small street.

"That's crazy Ami."

"You agreed with me this morning. Well, what else can explain what's happening to us?"

"I don't know- but it can't be that," he said with a final air to his tone. "Maybe none of this is even real, maybe we're being drugged."

"Yes Trowa, we're being drugged and imagining all of this. In fact I bet we're just lying on some lab tables dreaming all of this," Ami said, unable to hide the distaste in her voice. Trowa passively let this go.

"Well, even if what we're experiencing is real, this isn't following the real stream of time," he said.

It seemed that the lack of hunger had made Trowa more reasonable, but Ami was not about to forget everything they had gone through.

"What do you mean 'if'? Anyways, this is all part of the history I know. I mean, World War II was huge. It was only about sixty years ago."

Trowa froze and looked at Ami suspiciously. World War II? Sixty years ago?

"What year is it here?"

"1939 I think."

"You think 1939 was only sixty plus years ago? Are you insane? It's AC 203 right now," Trowa said, and Ami glared back at his severe misconception of the current date before realizing that Trowa was clearly from the other dimension she and the Senshi had been heading to before she lost her memory.

"I want to go back to the temple," she said slowly, gauging his reaction.

"What are you hiding from me?" He asked stopping and looking down at her.

"Nothing, what are _you_ keeping from me?"

His glare intensified and he quietly spoke. "Nothing…..I thought you wanted to talk."

"I'm done talking," she said, turning away from him and looking around for the direction they had come from. It wasn't a city, so not that the sun had gone down there were no street lights to guide their way. Plus, their angered conversation had led them astray from the road that they had been on.

She chose a direction and began to walk that way, Trowa calling after her.

"Ami you don't even know where you're going," he spoke from behind her, infuriating her more as she turned back to him.

"Stop talking to me! You're so impossib-" she froze, before beginning to scream. "Trowa, behind you!"

What had looked like dark shadows became human like forms, and before Trowa had a second to look he was jumped from behind and knocked to the ground, about four men pinning him down.

"Looks like a rich city man," the fifth man standing said, his arms crossed as he watched. "Must have a lot of yen on him. Find his wallet." He was clearly the leader.

"Trowa!" Ami rushed forwards to help, however a sixth man she hadn't noticed came up behind her and grabbed her around the waist, pinning her hands to her sides and laughing. Trowa kicked one of the men off him, landing a second kick to his head and rendering him unconscious. The leader jumped in, and from where Ami stood she could see it was a struggle for the four of them to hold just Trowa.

"You shouldn't have struggled my friend," the leader commented, managing to land a good punch on Trowa's face. Trowa cried out in anger now, and Ami began to try to escape the man who was holding her so she could help.

"Don't try anything girl," he sneered, and Ami raised her foot and stomped with all of her might on the man's foot. He cried out, loosening his hold on her and allowing her to free her hands. She elbowed him with all of her might and he doubled over, giving her the opportunity to turn and kick him in the head, knocking him out.

She rushed towards the group, taking them by surprise as she pulled the one on Trowa's right arm off of him. The man was surprised only a second before knocking her to the ground and pinning her down. With Trowa's right arm free, he hit the man holding him by his left in the head. The man wasn't down yet, glaring before punching Trowa in his side. This still left Trowa's left arm free, and he punched the man in the face once more, the man growling and hit him again. Not deterred, one last hit to the side of the man's head sent him slumping to the ground. The leader and the man that were holding down Trowa's legs stopped their search for the wallet. Pulling a knife from his pocket, the man to Trowa's left held it up to his neck.

"Where's your damn wallet?"

"I don't have one," Trowa said, smirking as fury washed over his features.

The man pinning Ami down turned to listen to what was being said, totally ignoring her and just holding her by her wrists. She kicked her feet, hitting him in the groin and watching him gasp and slump over, groaning. It was a good hit, and a low blow but Ami wasn't too concerned with that as she leapt to her feet.

The leader stood and stared at her, leaving the thug holding Trowa down to threaten him some more, knowing Trowa wouldn't try anything with the knife at his neck.

It took her a moment to realize a revolver was being pointed at her, the moonlight glinting off of the metal.

"I don't usually waste my bullets on petty robberies, but you're making me reconsider," he explained. The man she had kicked in the groin reached towards her from the ground, but his leader stopped him. "Quit being an idiot. Get up and go check on the others. Drag them near each other until they wake up, I'm not carrying anybody."

The man nodded and got to his feet, glaring at Ami and first heading towards the man several feet away whom she had knocked out.

"Now sit," he commanded, ushering with his gun. Before Ami could move, the commotion with Trowa and the man with the knife worsened.

"Give us the wallet!" He shouted, raising his hand and plunging the knife into Trowa's right shoulder. Ami screamed, forgetting about the gun and leaping towards the man with the knife. The man was surprised and began to stand, getting off the now pissed Trowa and shoving Ami to the ground. He was surprised when she kicked his feet out from under him and then tried to pull the knife from his hands.

The leader ignored Ami and the thug, walking over to Trowa, whom was beginning to get up, and stomping on his stomach.

Trowa's hands flew to stop him, and the man stepped on Trowa's hand, who pulled back, and did it again and again, until Trowa finally began to cry out.

The thug whom had been collecting the three unconscious men came running over, now involved with the knife fight between Ami and his friend. The leader stopped his onslaught on Trowa and raised his gun, aiming at Ami and accidently shooting one of his men. He screamed in rage as he had possibly just killed one of his own men.

"That's it! Kill them both! Forget the money!" He turned back to Trowa. "Did you put your wife in martial arts school or something?" He raised his leg to stomp on Trowa once more, gasping as Trowa grabbed his foot and with great force, flipped him on to the ground. The gun fell from his hands and Trowa grabbed it, sitting up with trouble and shooting the man in the leg. The man screamed, catching the attention of everyone else.

He turned the gun on the last man, who was about to stab Ami with the knife he had just recovered.

"Get off of her. Now."

The man dropped the knife and slowly backed away, raising his hands in surrender before running away. Ami stood and rushed over to Trowa, trying to assess how badly he was injured in the dark.

"Are you hurt?" He asked her. She shook her head, but realizing it was difficult to see, responded.

"No. Can you even stand?"

"My legs aren't injured," he said flatly, trying to use his hands to stand but unable to because of his stab wound.

The man he had shot in the leg shouted curses at them but they both ignored him. Trowa tucked the revolver into the waist of his pants and turned to the left, spitting up blood.

"I'll help you," Ami said, moving to help him up from his uninjured right arm.

"I'm fine."

"You're not." She grabbed his arm again and he pulled away.

"I said I was fine."

"No you're not!" Ami shouted; losing her temper as tears sprang to her eyes. "Why won't you let me help you?"

_'Because he doesn't trust me.'_ The answer came to her as soon as she's asked the question, and it was less like a thought she had just experiences and more of a memory. The same feeling of déjà vu came over her, and she was suddenly racking her brain for where she'd heard that before.

Knowing he still didn't want her help, Ami helped him anyways, even if It was solely for the reason that he had been helping her the last few days as well.

He groaned in protest as she helped him get off of the ground, and knowing he was in pain Ami kept quiet.

They still had the issue of which way they had come from. Trial and error?

"Go left. We came from the left."

She nodded, beginning to walk to where he had instructed and him managing to keep pace with her. After about ten minutes, the temple began to loom in the distance, and they were soon standing before its massive steps.

"Can you manage the steps," she asked, frowning.

"What do you think?" He responded coldly, not loving the feeling of needing her to drag him everywhere.

Deciding not to be petty, Ami chose not to respond as they started up the huge steps.

Trowa pushed through the pain, although he suddenly felt like he deserved it because of the way he had treated her. He was being so rude, and their entire fight had only been about theories they had and differences of opinion on what year it was where they were from- okay, so that last one was a big problem.

Still, she hadn't done anything wrong.

They reached the front and Ami slid the door open, the two of them entering quietly. She helped him into the room and he pulled away from her and shakily sat on the bed.

"I'll go look for the first aid kit Saori used on us earlier," she commented softly, leaving the room.

Saori had used an anti-septic of some kind on their older injuries to try and stop infection, and she had put the kit somewhere in the kitchen. Where had she put it?

Trying to remain quiet so that Saori wasn't awakened, Ami quietly slid open drawers and opened cabinets until she found it.

She came into the room and closed the door, seeing that Trowa already had his shirt unbuttoned. He was trying to ease the sleeve off of his right arm, and she heard him hiss in pain when he had to raise his shoulder to do so. Now that he was in the light, she could see that his cheek had a huge bruise on it, and that his torso was already showing signs of severe bruising.

"Here," Ami said, setting the kit down and approaching him. "Let me help."

She grabbed onto the sleeve of the shirt where it was open, toughing his arm slightly as she pulled off the shirt. Trowa flinched slightly, her touch suddenly cold as ice even though it was pretty warm out.

Ami pulled back her hands apologetically, moving back towards the dresser to get the kit. Opening it up, she pulled out antiseptic, antibiotic, wrap, and medical tape.

She wet a cloth with the antiseptic and carefully touched the wound, pulling back again as Trowa's face contorted in pain.

"I'm sorry," she said, having no choice but to continue as she began to clean the wound, her fingers lightly touching his skin.

As it had been before, Trowa felt her fingers to be ice to the touch. However, when she would move them the area would feel searing hot, and it only seemed to cool when her fingers would brush it once more.

"I think you need stitches, what do we do?" Ami asked, beginning to fret as she surveyed the wound.

"I don't need them," he said, "Just wrap it please. The wound will close."

She nodded, and did just that, making sure it was very tight so that the bleeding would stop.

"Now," Ami said, reaching down and touching the worst looking bruise on his torso, near his side. He flinched and hissed slightly again, and she frowned.

"I think that man bruised your ribs," Ami said. "Can you cough without pain?"

Trowa turned to the right and gave a small couch, gasping and grabbing his waist when he did so.

"They're definitely bruised. You need ice on that. I'll wrap it up. Hang on, let me get some ice," she murmured, leaving the room.

When she returned, Trowa spoke.

"Are you a doctor? You look young."

She shook her head. "I'm only twenty two. I just graduated from college- I was planning on starting medical school in the fall. Anyways," Ami added, smiling. "You're the doctor, remember?"

He nodded, remembering their lie to Saori, and glad that they were now getting some information from each other.

"Keep it on a few minutes before I wrap it," Ami said, passing him the ice. She then left the room to change into the sleeping clothes Saori had given her. It was just a modest night gown, so she wasn't shy to be around Trowa in it since it was probably more conservative than the dress she was wearing.

Re-entering the room a few minutes later, Ami took the ice pack from him and pulled out the gauze, beginning to wrap it around his torso. She blushed because she had to lean all the way over him to do it, but tried to keep professional as she reminded herself that she was studying to do this for real.

Trowa stared at her, smirking at the slight redness of her cheeks but saying nothing.

After she wrapped it, she stepped back before taping it.

"Breathe deeply so I can see if it's too tight."

He did so, and she nodded. "Good."

She taped him up and then put all of the supplies away, leaving the room to return the kit.

When she returned, Trowa had grabbed his nightshirt and pulled it on his good arm. She helped him slip it carefully over his shoulder and also helped him button it, throwing the ruined dress shirt he had been wearing on a chair. Trowa knew that in his condition- he'd be sleeping in the dress pants.

Ami laid her dress neatly on a chair, running her fingers through her hair distractedly.

"Ami," Trowa said quietly, and she turned to glance at him. "I'm sorry."

She nodded, shrugging. "Don't be. I lost my temper too."

".....and thanks for helping me."

She finally smiled. "You helped me a lot too the last few days, remember?"

Grabbing her pillow off the bed, Ami stopped when he grabbed her hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Sleeping on the floor."

"Ami-"

"You've been stabbed; I'd say you have rights to the bed."

"Well," he said. "Last night you slept on my lap, so I'd say that the two of us peacefully sharing a bed won't be a problem."

She blushed as he expected, but nodded. Trowa carefully laid back and got under the covers on the left of the bed. Ami chose to lay on the very edge of the bed, as far from him as possible, and on top of the sheets.

Trowa couldn't help allowing a small laugh to escape at that action, but it hurt his ribs so he stopped.

"Goodnight Ami."

"Goodnight," she murmured tiredly, glad that the day was finally over.

* * *

I'm soo sorry it took so long to update! I started school again and life got crazy, but I promise I'll be keeping up with my updates now! PLEASE review, this chapter took forever!


	4. Day 4

Hey all! Thanks to anyone who has reviewed! I have to be honest though, the reviews are terrible and it's not encouraging me to update faster. Please, after you read, just take one second and tell me what you think! Without further delay.....

* * *

Last Time:

"_Ami-"_

"_You've been stabbed; I'd say you have rights to the bed."_

"_Well," he said. "Last night you slept on my lap, so I'd say that the two of us peacefully sharing a bed won't be a problem."_

_She blushed as he expected, but nodded. Trowa carefully laid back and got under the covers on the left of the bed. Ami chose to lay on the very edge of the bed, as far from him as possible, and on top of the sheets. _

_Trowa couldn't help allowing a small laugh to escape at that action, but it hurt his ribs so he stopped. _

"_Goodnight Ami."_

"_Goodnight."_

Day 4

Ami shielded her eyes from the bright light streaming in through the windows. What time was it?

She sat up with a frown, realizing that she had somehow slipped under the covers during the night. Looking to her right, she noticed that Trowa was still soundly asleep. Blushing, she quickly climbed out of the bed and grabbed her dress from the chair, making a beeline for the bathroom. She changed and washed up quickly, exiting the bathroom and nearly crashing into Saori.

Saori glanced up at her and smiled warmly.

"Good morning! I already prepared breakfast. Tell me- where's your husband?"

"Oh, he's still asleep actually-" Ami began, before Saori cut her off.

"I know, he seemed to be in pretty bad shape when I checked on him this morning," Saori commented, shaking her head. "You did well patching him up, I guess you have picked up a few things from your husband."

"How did you know to check on him?" Ami asked, following Saori into the room she had set up for Ami and Trowa. In Saori's hand was a bottle of aspirin, and she set it down on the dresser next to Trowa and began to leave the room, stopping in the doorway.

"I heard the two of you come in yesterday. Come for breakfast whenever you're ready. Oh," Saori paused, walking back up to Ami and reaching towards her. Ami frowned, her face turning white as she saw what Saori was holding. The necklace was dangling off of Ami's neck and yet she hadn't even noticed. It was another silver chain, only this time the upside down moon was black crystal and larger.

"Did you have this yesterday?"

Ami nodded shakily, hoping Saori wouldn't see through her, and Saori stared at her a moment longer before she exited the room. Ami quickly began pulling off the necklace, in a state of panic now as she turned to check on Trowa.

She nearly dropped the necklace when she saw his eyes open, watching her critically.

"We have to leave here within the next hour," he said, still lying down however there was determination in his eyes.

"You're badly injured. You need to sleep and take it easy or you'll just hurt yourself more," Ami reminded him. His eyes seemed doubtful a moment, before he slid his arms up to his elbows and began to try and sit up. He spoke while trying, his voice strained as Ami rushed to help him.

"Well... that necklace means we've brought our trouble to Saori.....we have to leave," he finished with a groan as he sat up partially, Ami steadying him and stepping back with a frown.

"The moment we leave this little oasis that Saori had so kindly created for us, we'll enter another hell hole," she said quietly. He nodded.

"Ami, this place is exactly that- it's too perfect. It's deceiving us. We'll never figure out what's happening to us if we stay here. Besides, there's obviously a link between those necklaces and that shadow creature we fought in the cave. There are probably more of them than the one we just killed, following us around. If we stay here any longer, that being could show itself- or worse, this area could go through some trouble while we're here. I think we shouldn't stick in one place too long- if we really are moving through time, then I think we're disturbing it."

Ami sighed. "You're right. Can you- can you walk?"

"I'll take the aspirin and then try to get up in a few minutes. Go ahead and have breakfast if you want," Trowa responded, offering a confident smile. Ami nodded, hoping Trowa wasn't as badly injured as she thought he was as she exited the room and went to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Saori was seated at the table, sipping from a small cup of tea.

She ushered for Ami to enter, and poured her a cup as well. A long silence fell over the room, before Saori set down her cup with a small thud.

"Trowa is not your husband," she said softly, looking up and meeting Ami in the eyes. Ami blushed slightly, but nodded.

"I'm not judging my dear. I have a feeling you two are in some kind of trouble. I had a dream last night, and a voice was telling me not to get involved and ask any more questions about your situation. So I won't."

The two grew silent again, before Ami spoke a few minutes later. "We're leaving within the next hour," Ami said, meeting her eyes once more.

"Eat first then. I'll send a small pack of water and food with you," Saori said, and Ami offered her a smile.

"I don't know how to thank you."

Half an hour later, after they had eaten and taken food to Trowa in his bed, Ami went back to the room. Trowa had changed into a different shirt, a white one since his previous had been ruined.

She was surprised to see that he was standing, although unsteadily.

"Ready?" He asked, his voice more confident than his stance.

"I was going to ask you that," she responded, surprised at his determination to leave.

"I was as well," Saori commented from the doorway. In her hands she held a small satchel, which she gave to Ami.

"It's just got some water and bread- nothing fancy. I wasn't sure how far you'd be going," she explained. Ami began to thank her again, but Saori stopped her.

"Not to worry- oh and I packed some aspirin, antiseptic, antibiotic, and medical tape and gauze in there too for you. You too look like the type who will make much more use out of it than I did."

Trowa walked steadily to the front with them, and Ami smiled.

"Wow, good for you."

He nodded. "Walking really isn't bothering me- it's not my legs that have the problem. I'm in less pain when I'm standing than when I'm sitting down anyways," he explained.

"Again, I don't know how else to thank you," Ami said as they began down the steps.

Saori shook her head. "Just be safe," she murmured, "I have a bad feeling."

"Take care Saori," Ami replied, waving as the two headed down the steps and into the street. Turning right, they continued down the road and past several modest homes. The sun was beating down on them but it felt pleasant, and Ami allowed herself to relax and take a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, she was shocked to see that they were no longer near any homes.

"What?" They were in a grassy field now- the change had occurred in under a second and had seriously thrown her off- although she shouldn't have been surprised.

Next to her, Trowa chuckled. "You should be happy. This is better than a blizzard."

"That's true," Ami agreed, as a soothing breeze blew through the tall grass. "It's beautiful anyways."

"We should discuss more about what happened to us before we ended up here," Trowa said as they walked. "I think it's important to figuring out how to get out of here."

"Well, like I said- my friends and I were at lunch. That's all I remember," Ami explained, leaving out the fact that she actually remembered standing before the gates of time with the Senshi and then nothing beyond that.

"I can't remember past when I was with my friends, as I told you two days ago anyways," he replied, also leaving out the details. He pulled out the revolver he had taken from the thug that attacked them, opening it to check the bullets.

"Three of the six were fired when we were attacked," he explained. "I was wondering if anymore bullets were used before then."

Upon opening it, he smiled. "That thug did say he doesn't waste bullets. There are still three left should we need them."

"You know, you're pretty good with a gun," Ami said, "any particular reason for that?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, I do work in law enforcement. I usually have a gun on me all the time. The strange thing is, when we woke up here it was gone," Trowa said. "Of course, we were both injured, so we were clearly robbed."

He paused, before beginning to prod again. "What were you looking for when you first woke up again?"

Ami looked up at him, frowning, and looked away. What was he getting at?

"My cell phone, remember?" She asked steadily, not a trace of doubt in her voice. "Although I doubt we'd get service here," she added lightly to end the conversation.

She didn't know anything about Trowa. It was true that they were both stuck here together, but in all honesty he was clearly concealing something about his life from her. Then again, she was too.

"What I find strange is that we're from two different areas. I was on L2, and you were in Tokyo. Why would two people who have nothing to do with each other end up in a place like this?"

"I don't know," Ami responded. "That's exactly the problem."

"Plus, you said that 1939 was a little over sixty years ago, which we both know to be impossible, right?"

"Right," Ami responded stiffly.

"What I'm wondering is why you would say that; I mean you seem pretty intelligent. Staring medical school in the fall and all," Trowa continued.

"I don't know what came over me," Ami responded dryly. "Perhaps I was just tired."

"Perhaps," he replied.

Ami pursed her lips and ignored him. How could she have possibly gotten stuck with _him_? He was so infuriating.

'_You're infuriating beyond belief!'_

Ami willed herself to keep walking. Where had that come from? It was Trowa's voice, that was for sure, but he had never said that to her as far as she could remember. Where had she heard him say that before?

"Are you sure we never met before we woke up here?" She asked him suddenly.

"As far as I remember," he replied, not done questioning her.

"Well that's the thing Trowa. We don't remember anything. Maybe we did meet before we woke up. It's the only way I can see us waking up here together when we remember being so far apart."

Trowa paused to consider what she was saying. "Maybe so Ami, but I know we'll never figure anything out if we're not honest with each other."

"Likewise," Ami snapped, beginning to criticise him. Trowa didn't hear any of it. He had that weird feeling of déjà vu again. That same strange feeling; followed by a voice ringing through his head.

'_Are you...being honest with me?' _Yes, he had said that before- that was his voice. That was his steely cold voice that he used when he was interrogating people. Where had that come from? Where had he said it- and more importantly- to whom?

"Hey, are you listening to me?" Ami demanded, obviously still angry at him for his accusations.

"Oh, yes. Sorry," he said, his voice entirely different than it had been before. He sounded distracted, which was quite unlike him. The cool voice he had been using before when he was questioning her was gone.

"You okay Ami?" He asked, sounding bright now, more pleasant like when they first met. She stared at him incredulously.

"Are you bipolar?"

He laughed and shook his head. "No, why?" Clearly, his being rude to Ami wasn't going to work. Clearly- he would have to be nice for the next little while, at least until she made him truly suspicious once more.

She stared at him a moment longer, before shaking her head and muttering "no reason." Ami understood now. Two could play at his game. She would be sweet as sugar.

"No reason," he repeated after her. "Okay Ami, whatever you say."

She was no longer listening, and was staring ahead of them with a look of distress on her face.

"Trowa, look over there! What _is_ that?"

He followed where she was pointing and blanched. Apparently, while they had been arguing their scenery had changed. It was still daylight, however it was cloudy. Before them stood massive deep green hedges, reaching at least twenty feet high. There was an opening about five feet wide in the hedges, and it seemed to be the only way to get through them for miles on each side.

"Is that what I think it is?" He asked. She nodded slowly.

"...A labyrinth."

* * *

The hedges rose high above their heads, and once they stepped inside the day seemed much later as there was hardly any light inside.

"This is kind of scary," Ami admitted as they walked. Trowa didn't respond, his eyes taking in every aspect they could. This place was the ideal place for an attack and it didn't make him very confident. At least he had the revolver. Three bullets- he couldn't be careless.

Ami shifted the small pack Saori had given them from one shoulder to another. This place seemed to go on forever. She wished she had her computer; it was always her eyes when she couldn't see. Plus, that shadow creature seemed to be forever on their tail. If indeed, it was another shadow creature like the one Trowa had destroyed. If she had every missed having her powers, it was now.

A loud thud made the two stop in their tracks, and Ami once more shifted uneasily.

"What was that?" She asked, letting the fear begin to consume her. This place was awful; there was never a peaceful minute, always something. It was definitely starting to get to her- the idea that they were on a journey but had no destination except to wander forever.

"......so anyways I think we should keep going," Trowa's voice cut into her thoughts and she suddenly realized he had been speaking the whole time.

"Oh...alright," she agreed slowly, beginning to walk ahead blindly as she tried to remember her train of thought. That last thing she had wondered about- on a journey with no destination except to wander- it was familiar. Not in the sense of déjà vu like she had been having the last few days, but more of something that she'd heard before. Wandering forever with no destination....until something was found? No....until something was regained? Where had she heard this? She would have to keep this mind, something about this thought seemed to similar to her situation....

"Ami, where are you going?" She stopped walking again and saw that Trowa had begun to head down a different area of the labyrinth than her. "Didn't we agree to go this way?" He asked again.

She nodded quickly, stepping towards him quickly to catch up. "Sorry, I was just-"

"Watch it!"

"Wha-" Before she could react, she was on the ground. What was on top of her?

It took her a moment to piece together that it was Trowa on top of her, and looking up she realized that the entire hedge above her was on fire.

Trowa groaned slightly, and she was sure that had probably further aggravated his shoulder or ribs.

"Sorry," she muttered, rolling out from underneath him carefully. Getting to her knees, she glanced around the area of the labyrinth they were in. It was now illuminated thanks to the flames burning at the hedge behind them, although no one else was around from what she could see.

She turned to Trowa, whom was unsteadily beginning to rise to his feet. She grabbed his good arm and helped pull him up, feeling guiltier as he grimaced. He had been okay for walking but she knew how hard it was to seriously exert the upper half of his body and her inattention had caused him to do so.

Once he was on his feet, Trowa also began to look around.

"Let's get out of this area quickly," he said. She nodded, the two of them heading down the hall Trowa had suggested and moving quickly.

Another loud thud rang through the area, but the two didn't stop walking.

More thuds followed this, and became consistent as the two sped up their pace.

"It sounds like something huge is walking behind us," Ami said. Trowa nodded, glancing behind them and seeing nothing.

"Just keep up the pace; we have to find a way out of here."

A siren began to blare through the area, and Ami frowned. "What is this? It's like a trap or war zone or something," she said.

"How would you know what a warzone is like?" Trowa asked as a loud explosion tore through the area. Ignoring his interrogating comment, the two began to run now, totally unsure of where it had come from.

Looking behind them, once more nothing was there.

"This place is messing with my head," Trowa said angrily, grabbing his side momentarily as their pace slowed.

Ami nodded, speaking. "Me too, we should probably..." she froze, her mouth opening slightly as her hands flew to her stomach. A bit of blood trickled from her mouth and she glanced down at the profusely bleeding wound on her stomach. It was so sudden, that her mind could hardly comprehend what had just happened. She had surely been hit with some sort of an energy based attack, but it had happened so fast that neither one of them had even been aware of it.

"Ami?" Trowa questioned, his voice sounding surprised as he finally noticed her blood covered hands, gripping her stomach. The area was totally empty, how was it possible for someone to have injured her?

More blood trickled from the side of her mouth, and she doubled over and collapsed, Trowa barely able to catch her shoulder with his good arm before she hit the ground.

Letting her go down slowly, he took in the area, making sure no one was around as he thought. No one was. It was bizarre. He pulled the satchel that Saori gave them from Ami, holding her head up and frowning.

Her hands shook as she continuously tried to cover the wound, and he wondered if she was going into shock.

"Stay with me Ami. Talk to me."

".....what about?" She asked slowly, her head swimming as she tried desperately not to lose consciousness. Surely, Trowa couldn't carry her in his condition. He had one good arm and bruised ribs, it was almost impossible for him to do anything with the upper half of his body for a few days.

"Anything, just speak," he said, as he dug through the satchel and found the clothes and antiseptic. He had to wrap it tight and stop the bleeding before she lost too much.

He pulled her hands away from her stomach to assess the damage, grimacing. He wet a cloth with antiseptic and cleaned off the wound first, gripping Ami's hand as it flew towards the wound. She hissed slightly and tears sprang to her eyes.

"Sorry," he said, and she nodded through her teary eyes. Quickly wrapping her wound as best he could and making sure it wasn't too tight, he hoped they could get out of the labyrinth before she bled through it.

Turning back to look at her, he bent over her slightly and raised the cloth to wipe the blood from the side of her mouth. Ami felt her breathe get caught in her throat and his eyes met hers a moment later.

Trowa froze once he met her eyes, his hand that held the cloth dropping from her face.

Her eyes were so....familiar.

"We've met before," he said softly.

"I think so...."

"You can't remember?" he asked again.

"Can you?"

He couldn't, however another explosion shook them from their reverie.

Trowa turned to look behind them, and was shocked to see that he could actually see the explosion this time. It seemed to be pretty close, and was it....expanding? His eyes widened and before he the pain of his own injuries kicked in he grabbed Ami from the ground and began to run. She gasped, not expecting him to have been able to pick her up. The miracles of adrenaline never ceased to amaze her.

The flames engulfed the area behind them as he ran, and Trowa didn't dare stop running until he was far away. Perhaps the flames would engulf the entire maze, in which case they would either escape or be trapped within it to burn.

He turned down another hall of hedges, beginning to finally clear the flames as the area began to darken once more.

The two had wandered a long time before; surely they were nearing an exit....

The pain of his own injuries began to set in as he stopped and set Ami back down, groaning slightly.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, her face now stark white. Glancing down he realized that she was bleeding through her bandages.

"Why are you sorry? I'm the one who is too incompetent to get us out of this death trap."

"That's a good way to put it," a different voice added to theirs, and Trowa glanced up to see that another shadow creature much like the one he had destroyed two nights before in the cave stood before them. It gave an empty smile, beginning to speak as its red eyes pierced Trowa's.

"You killed my brother in the cave."

"So that's why you're following us?" Trowa demanded.

"Maybe, but there are always other reasons," it said flippantly, taking a step closer. Trowa immediately pulled out the revolver, and the being laughed a bit and stepped back.

"You're quite testy, aren't you? Another time, perhaps...." With its words, it faded into the darkness as though it had never been there.

"We have to get out of here now," Trowa said, ignoring the pain as he moved to pick her up.

"Stop, you can't," she said, swatting him away.

"I have to, you need help right away," he reminded her as he quickly scooped her up and continued walking.

A few minutes later, he glanced down at her and frowned.

"Ami....you still with me?"

"Mmm," was the only response she offered, but it was enough to show him that she was conscious at least.

He rounded another hedge. The place was going on forever....at least he had time to think. Where did he know Ami from? He had been so sure that he would figure it out before the last explosion.

Something about her eyes had been so familiar. Not just on a normal basis, but when she had been injured and was totally vulnerable. It was as if anything she normally hid within them was exposed for him to see in that second. He had seen that look before. He knew he had. Where had he seen it? He glanced down at her, but her eyes were closed.

Some light reached his eyes, and he realized that there could possibly be an opening up ahead. It should only have been afternoon time according to how long he and Ami had been walking since they left Saori's temple that morning. He quickened his pace once he saw a bright opening in the hedges. It _was _an exit.

He made a dash for the opening, revelling in the sunlight that nearly blinded him as he emerged- he froze as a sharp pain suddenly stopped him in his tracks. His back, something had hit his back as he had exited.

The pain increased as he took another step forwards, determined to get as far from the maze as possible. However the further he walked, the worse the pain became. He began to feel hot blood running down his back and soaking his clothing. It was all so sudden, just like when Ami had been hit. It didn't feel as though he had been shot, so he didn't understand it.

They were in a forest, and turning to look behind him he saw that the labyrinth was gone, as though it had never been there.

"Ami," he said, shaking her slightly. "Look."

Ami didn't move, looking even whiter than before if possible. Her whole waist was covered in blood and he was hardly able to see the bandages from before. Was she even still alive? White spots danced in front of his vision, but he willed himself to keep walking. They had to find an escape from this place, all of it couldn't have been for nothing.....

Another step, and Trowa almost fell. He couldn't risk dropping Ami. He willed himself to carefully lower her to the ground, falling to his knees. His last thought before he finally hit the ground revolved around how passing out in a deserted forest was not the optimal location.

* * *

Ami groaned, moving to sit up and unable to. A sharp pain tore through her stomach and she winced, looking around. The sun was beginning to set, casting its glow around the forest she lay in. The last she remembered, she and Trowa had been in the labyrinth. Where was he? Looking to her left, she gasped when she noticed that Trowa was lying face down on the ground, unmoving. Blood was caked all over his back, and she grimaced merely at the sight, wondering how it could have happened. From where she lay she took his hand, checking for a pulse and finding it beating steady.

Glancing down at her own stomach, she was not surprised to see it caked with blood. How were she and Trowa still alive? Well, he had wrapped up her waist, plus she was a sailor scout. Her healing abilities were far superior to others. Trowa though....she had to tend to his back right away. Where was the satchel Saori had given her? Turning her head, she saw that it was about two feet from her right hand. She stretched her arm towards the pack, feeling a pain tear through her at the slightest movement. This wasn't good.

With a cry, he moved enough to grab it, holding it against herself unmoving. This was one of the worst days, and it wasn't even over yet!

Ami gingerly opened the pack, still lying down and wondering how she was going to do it. Finding the antiseptic, Ami opened the cap and poured some of it onto her wrappings before she could reconsider. A cry escaped her throat and she bit her hand to silence herself, not wanting to wake Trowa since it was easier if he was asleep when she wrapped him up. Now, how was she going to do so lying down? She couldn't, at least not on her back. Knowing what she had to do but dreading it, Ami braced herself.

Counting to three in her head, she abruptly turned herself onto her stomach, crying out again. Tears burned at her eyes but she blinked them away, refocusing her vision. She was now closer to Trowa too, and her shaking hands pulled out the medical wrap and tape from the satchel as well.

She first cleaned his wound, then set to the difficult part of wrapping it as she laid and taping it up. The process took her about fifteen minutes, but she was finally able to relax once she finished. Well....almost. She still had a stomach wound and it was never good to lie on her stomach in that case.

'This is the last time,' she told herself. 'When you wake up in the morning it'll be halfway healed.'

Without even counting this time, she used the last of her momentum to turn herself back onto her back. Her cry seemed to echo in the area, and she bit her lip. Something warm touched her left hand, and she looked from her hand which gripped Trowa's, to his face. It was turned towards her and he seemed tired, but he also seemed more concerned for what was happening.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded, blinking back her tears. He squeezed her hand lightly, speaking. "Thank you."

"I should be thanking you, I can't believe you carried me with all of your other injuries. What happened to your back?"

"I don't even know," he responded, not releasing her hand. For a reason Ami didn't quite understand, she didn't want him to let go. Things were so messed up, and she had never felt like she needed another person to be with her until now.

"I haven't been entirely honest with you." The words had slipped from her mouth before her brain could tell her to stop, and strangely enough she didn't regret them. Trowa gave a small quiet laugh, his grip on her hand tightening.

"I might just be telling you this because I think we're going to die- but that makes two of us."

* * *

Thanks for reading! REVIEW! I swear I'll update faster if the reviews are better!


	5. Day 5

Last Time:

"_Are you alright?"_

_She nodded, blinking back her tears. He squeezed her hand lightly, speaking. "Thank you."_

"_I should be thanking you, I can't believe you carried me with all of your other injuries. What happened to your back?"_

"_I don't even know," he responded, not releasing her hand. For a reason Ami didn't quite understand, she didn't want him to let go. Things were so messed up, and she had never felt like she needed another person to be with her until now._

"_I haven't been entirely honest with you." The words had slipped from her mouth before her brain could tell her to stop, and strangely enough she didn't regret them. Trowa gave a small quiet laugh, his grip on her hand tightening._

"_I might just be telling you this because I think we're going to die- but that makes two of us."_

Day 5

Ami usually prided herself on being totally self-reliant. Unless she was with her friends, she was alone, and this detail had never actually bothered her. Not that she didn't at times find it lonely, no the thoughts of how alone she felt had at times crept into her mind. All of that was overshadowed however when it came to how independent she was. Ami always knew how to act and usually knew what to do. She always had the right answer, and never let any of her own secrets slip no matter how upset she was.

Why then, had she allowed herself to admit that she was lying? Clearly, it was temporary insanity. Maybe blood loss from her wound, or the certainty that she was about to die, something of that sort. Or perhaps it was more than that- as if she were so sick of lying that she just couldn't stop herself. Maybe being with Trowa these last few days had even made her too reliant on another person. Either way, she probably had some explaining to do.

Well....she wasn't the only one. Ami allowed her eyes to wander over to Trowa's still form. He was surely awake, although he had yet to say anything to her. After the two had basically proclaimed themselves to be liars the night before, they had quickly fallen asleep.

Trowa ignored Ami's glance. He considered turning to look at her and scaring her a bit, perhaps shocking her that he had been aware the entire time. He quickly reconsidered. Trowa needed to collect himself. Ami wanted answers and he had to figure out what to give her. His stupidity the night before angered him that morning, and he had to remind himself that he and Ami were exchanging information, as she had come forward about the truth first. What could she have meant by that? Better yet, what had he been planning on telling her?

Okay, so his work in the preventers wasn't exactly a secret back home, and neither was the fact that he was an ex-Gundam pilot anymore. However, he had been on a mission in L2 as far as he remembered, and he was supposed to be incognito. Then again, his situation with Ami wasn't exactly standard. The preventers had been investigating a cult on L2, it didn't seem to have anything with Ami or their situation. It was as if they were outside reality, and he wasn't sure that any information he gave her could affect his mission. In fact, perhaps finally being honest with her would help them to remember what happened before. Their honesty could even help him to remember her- thanks to his déjà vu in the labyrinth he was sure he'd met her before. The mix of raw honesty and sheer terror in her eyes when she had been injured; the vulnerability of it- that had been a familiar look. He had seen Ami give him that look before, he just had to remember where.

Finally turning to meet her gaze, he offered her a small smile. "Good morning."

"M-morning," she stammered, not particularly enjoying being caught staring at him. Looking away, her right hand adjusted the strap on her dress, unconsciously tracing her neck before it touched something unfamiliar. Ami froze, clasping the foreign object in her hand. A necklace.

Her other hand flew to her neck and lifted it in view, as the black moon symbol became clear. With a disgusted sigh, Ami undid the clasp as quickly as she could and threw it away. She felt dirty knowing that someone or something continued to place them on her every time she slept.

"It could be that shadow creature," Trowa offered from where he lay to her right, and she glanced over. "He's been following us," Trowa continued. "I just don't understand what point he's trying to prove with the necklaces."

"They're evil," Ami said, staring in the direction of where she had thrown the necklace.

"Who are...you mean the necklaces?" Trowa realized, frowning. "Inanimate objects can't be evil Ami."

"Well these things radiate evil, as much as those shadow creatures you were just discussing," Ami responded, turning to look at him. Trowa gauged her expression to see how serious she was, before nodding.

"I think we really should talk."

"We are talking."

"You know what I mean," he said, and she nodded. Placing her hands beneath herself, she dragged herself back slightly, stopping to take a breather and doing it again, leaning slightly against a tree.

"This is better," she explained. "Do you need help?"

He shook his head, managing to move back himself. Surprisingly, his back felt a lot better today.

"Do you want to eat some of the bread Saori packed? Do you want water?"

He nodded at her questions, suddenly realizing how hungry and thirsty he was. Ami passed him some bread and a canteen of water, grabbing the same for herself.

The two immediately began to drink the water, eating the bread in silence as well. Trowa finished and turned to stare at her.

"Would you like to start?"

She nodded, brushing her bangs from her face.

"Well...." Ami paused, trying to collect her thoughts. Where to start? Perhaps sometimes being blunt was better than not.

"To begin, when I told you I was from Tokyo that was the truth, except that I forgot to mention that the Tokyo I'm from is in a different dimension."

Her words were met with total silence and hung awkwardly in the air. Trowa stared at her a moment, gauging how serious she was before nodding. At this point, after what they had been through, he was willing to believe just about anything. He nodded for her to go on and the tension immediately cleared as she continued.

"I'm actually a fighter in my world- we're called the Sailor Senshi. The only thing is that we don't fight people; we fight monsters and evil beings similar to those shadow beings that have followed us around here. I have a transformation wand I use, and with it I become the Senshi of Mercury. I can wield powers over ice and water. I don't really want to go into the full details, but I do want to tell you what happened to me the day I woke up here, at least everything I remember."

Trowa tipped his head at her. This weak looking woman was a fighter who had control of ice and water? It sounded unbelievable; then again he had no choice but to believe her. The eyes were the best lie detector and as Trowa stared at her he could tell she was sincere. "Go ahead, maybe it will help us to figure out everything."

"Okay....well I really was having a graduation lunch with my friends," Ami began, thinking back to the details of that day. "However our lunch was interrupted because one of the Sailor Senshi who wasn't at the lunch arrived suddenly and told us she needed our help immediately. This particular Senshi, Sailor Pluto, guards the gates of time. She needed us to go fight one of our enemies that we didn't know much about. She said that they had traveled to another dimension, yours I presume, and were trying to take over there. We were to first ask around and try to find the enemy, and then destroy them. The idea was to do it in one day. I remember a little bit beyond here. We all left with her and transformed. The last thing I remember is standing in front of the gates of time, and from then on it all goes blank."

Trowa nodded at her, thinking through the information she'd given him. "This explains why you and I had different ideas on what the year was," he said with a smirk. "Also, when you and I first woke up and you were looking for your cell phone, what were you looking for?"

"My transformation wand and communicator- why don't you go ahead and tell me your story," Ami said, not liking how she had revealed everything with him revealing very little.

He nodded. "Well it's no secret in my world that I am an ex-Gundam pilot. My five friends and I piloted large machines in the war. It's difficult to explain to you since you don't know much about my world, but after the war was over myself and the other four pilots joined a government group called the Preventers. The day we woke up here, my friends and I were sent on a mission to look into a group believed to be a cult that was supposed to be involved in some trouble on the L2 colony. I was to be incognito as a local on L2, which is why I told you what I did. However I only remember leaving headquarters and nothing beyond that."

"Hmm," Ami said, nodding. "Well that explains how good a fighter you are. Our stories sort of match up though. Perhaps the cult you were investigating was our enemy."

"It makes sense, but doesn't explain our memory loss. I've had a few fleeting memories since I arrived, but nothing major...just a few words here and there."

"Yes," Ami agreed, "A few words and strange feelings of déjà vu."

Trowa nodded. "Exactly....I wonder if we remember each other slightly because we crossed paths that day."

"Maybe," Ami agreed. "Now the question is how we got here and what happened to our friends."

"We have to remember that day," Trowa agreed, racking his brain for answers. _If _everything Ami told him was true, then the two had to remember quickly. Perhaps their friends were in worse trouble than they were.

"What sort of things have you remembered?" He asked. "Maybe it'll spark my memory."

"Well, when I woke up the second day, I remembered myself asking someone something, like 'who do you think you are?'"

"Hmm, well you could have said that to anyone. I'd like to say it sounds familiar and that you said it to me, but I could also be trying to make what you're saying become a memory to fit our story."

"That's true, we could be throwing off our story rather than figuring it out," Ami agreed, as a silence passed through the two.

"Well now what?" Trowa wondered aloud. "It's never safe to stay put, and we're too injured to move."

"That's what I was counting on," a sinister voice cut through the air, causing the two to gasp. The shadow being from before stood in front of them, its arms crossed and looking smug.

"You two are speaking honestly now I see. We really can't have that."

"What do you mean by that?" Trowa asked, as Ami questioned the being. "How do you keep finding us?"

It ignored Trowa's question, turning to stare at Ami a second before a grin spread across its face. "You....you really don't know?"

Ami's eyes widened as she looked around the area. What could that mean? How was she supposed to know?

"Why don't you enlighten us then?" Trowa cut in coldly, and it turned its attention back to him.

"I think not, why ruin a good thing?" It asked, chuckling as it stared them down. "You two are pathetic. You're really making my job easy."

"What job? Who is you leader?" Ami asked immediately, and it laughed once more.

"Why should I tell you that? Don't be ridiculous Mercury- it is okay to call you Mercury now isn't it?"

She glared, frowning. "Wait- do you have my transformation wand?"

"You think a lowly worker like me would be given that honor? The only reason I follow you two so diligently is because he," the being pointed at Trowa, "killed my brother in the cave."

"So you're that easy to kill?" Trowa asked, causing its face to twist up in rage.

It nodded, suddenly calm. The look it had on its face before disappearing seemed strangely at peace, almost as if it was plotting something as it disappeared.

"I don't understand," Ami said, looking at Trowa after it had gone. "If that being is so weak, then why is it following us out of anything my enemy could have thrown at us. If this is all that was sent after us, what would be its purpose, if not to bring us harm?"

"That's a good question," Trowa said, staring at the spot it had been a moment before. "It's just taunting us as we travel. What could its purpose be? Do you think that the 'cult' we were asked to follow was your enemy, and that they sent him after us?"

"It's all a possibility," Ami agreed, as she tried to sit up straighter and find a way to get to her feet. "We should move out of here regardless."

"Right," Trowa said, also attempting to get off the ground.

With a groan, Ami was on her feet although relying heavily on the tree she was leaning on. Looking to her right, she saw that Trowa was up as well.

"Ready?"

Ami picked up the small satchel and the two took a couple of unsteady steps forwards, quickly realizing that they would have to lean on each other to move.

After walking only a couple of feet from where they had been standing, the scene changed again.

"What?" If ever Ami had called the scenery they had witnessed thus far beautiful, it was now that she had to take all of her words back. The place looked like an absolute utopia, and the two had to stop walking and just take in their surroundings a few moments. They were in a place which had several small ponds surrounded by tall grass and every color in flowers they could imagine. There were oak trees assorted in the area as well, and majestic mountains with absolutely no snow off in the distance.

"I see only positives here," Trowa said with a smile, as the two continued walking again.

* * *

They walked in the oasis for a few more hours despite their injuries, entertaining each other by telling stories about the places they had come from and their friends.

The time had passed so quickly as the two had shared their stories, and she felt even more comfortable around Trowa now that she had some insight about his life. Ami turned back to Trowa as he continued with his story.

"Okay, so what I understand is that your friends, Usagi and Rei, seem to fight and have temperaments exactly similar to my friends Duo and Wufei," Trowa was saying, and Ami nodded energetically.

"It certainly seems so. So I'm assuming after what I've just heard that you all don't live together unless it is for work missions," she said, and he smiled.

"Exactly, I really don't think any of us would survive," Trowa said, and she smiled.

Ami glanced up at the sky, frowning once she realized that according to the sun it was already afternoon.

"Wow, we've been talking for hours," she said with a grin, and he nodded.

"Yes, but we've also been walking for hours and the area has surprisingly not changed. Do you think that we are walking in circles?"

"Well it seemed like we've been walking on a straight path, but my stomach is starting to hurt. Do you want to take a break?" She asked, and once more he nodded.

"Perhaps that's best. Do you think we'll be out of this area by morning? Maybe I should see if there's enough wood around here to build a fire. There's a small clearing right next to us that would be the perfect place for it, and I see some logs around. Let me go look," Trowa commented, standing and walking off.

"Is your back alright? Are you okay walking alone?" Ami asked. He nodded.

"I'm fine. I'll be right back," he said, and Ami turned back to her satchel to get some food for the two of them.

Trowa headed about twenty feet away, spotting the firewood he had been talking about. The fire would definitely keep them warm at night, especially if it got really cold at night as their conditions were constantly changing.

A small sound to his left caught his ears, and he frowned. What was that? He glanced back at Ami, who was rummaging in the satchel, and shrugged.

The sound happened again, a small laugh. He continued to follow it, curiosity getting the better of him although he kept his hand by the waist of his pants, at his revolver. Taking a few more steps towards the sound, he paused. It was gone now.

Suddenly, a low laugh reached his ears, although it seemed drastically clearer than before.

His eyes widened as his chest suddenly began to ache, growing in pain steadily. Trowa collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest, as his head began to feel light. The world around him began to get hazy and spin, before everything went black.

* * *

"Hmm?" Ami glanced over at Trowa as he walked back, looking totally uninjured as opposed to when he had walked off for the wood to begin with.

"Wow, you must be feeling better?" She commented cheerfully. Trowa remained standing, but nodded. Ami frowned at him, moving onto the topic he had mentioned before heading off.

"Did you not find any firewood?"

Trowa stared down at her once more, and Ami frowned.

".....no. I didn't see any firewood that we could use," he said after a moment, and she nodded unsurely.

"Well that's fine. I don't think we'll need it that badly tonight anyways," she said, looking down and away before she remembered the water.

"Here's your canteen," she said, passing it to him. "I'm not hungry yet and there really isn't that much bread. Are you hungry or can you wait?"

"No."

Ami nodded, biting her lip and looking away. What the hell had happened to him? They had been fine only a minute before, and now it was tense and weird between them. His eyes looked dull too, and were slightly glazed over. Was he sick?

"Trowa, are you alright?" She asked worriedly. Trowa met her gaze and smiled brightly.

"I'm sorry, I was just worried about our situation. I'm fine. Why don't we both have a rest- maybe nap for an hour to relax?"

Ami nodded at him and smiled, putting away her canteen and feeling relieved. She had been worried for a while there....

* * *

"_Wow, for a different dimension, this place looks a lot like our world," Minako commented as they headed down the street, having just emerged from the time gates and de-transformed._

"_Well then I guess you forgot that we're on a space colony," Rei retorted, and Minako rolled her eyes in response as Usagi began to laugh. _

"_Take it easy everyone. We still have to keep our guards up," Makoto warned, Ami nodding in agreement as she surveyed the area. Mamoru looked around,, keeping an eye on Usagi while trying to figure out where they were. The enemy base had to be around here somewhere....._

_Usagi went running ahead with Minako, the two of them laughing as they glanced back at the group and tried to irritate Rei. Rei kept her cool, although she continued to glare at them when they looked back at her._

"_Hold on Mako. Let's see what street we're on," Ami said, stopping at the corner. Makoto stopped with her, however Usagi and Minako were totally unaware and kept walking. _

"_Hey you two, slow down! Ami and Mako stopped! All we need is to get lost in this strange city," Rei called after the two, following them at a much faster pace. _

_Usagi and Minako turned the corner as they stared back at Rei, and Rei heard a small shout and a lot of ruckus as she came around the corner, placing her head in her hands temperamentally. True to Usagi's nature, she had smacked into the group of men whom had been coming around the corner. Minako had her hands on her knees as she laughed, while Usagi and the braided man on the floor tried to somehow modestly untangle themselves from each other. _

"_Oh- ahh, I am sooo sorry," she said sheepishly as Mamoru came running around the corner to help her up, shaking his head and smirking. _

_Ami and Makoto followed the others around the corner, staring at the group of men in front if them. _

_Ami glanced around at the five men, pausing when she made eye contact with a man possessing piercing green eyes._

Ami awoke with a gasp, noticing that the sun was a little lower in the sky. She had to have slept for more than an hour, however it couldn't have been more than two. Was Trowa asleep as well? Her thoughts drifted back to her dream. She knew she had seen him before, and this confirmed it. The dream was too real for it not to have happened. Perhaps all of her memories were going to start coming back to her.....

"You're up," Trowa's voice said from her right, and she blinked and turned to her right. Trowa was sitting up and had his hands leaned on his knees. His shirt was unbuttoned all the way and he looked dishevelled.

"What's wrong?" She asked, realizing he still had that dull look in his eyes.

"The shirt was suffocating me, I don't know who thought of shirts like this," he said stoically. Ami knew there was a bewildered expression on her face as she sat up slowly, staring at him.

"....shirts like that," she repeated, and looked at his canteen. He had left the cap off and the water had flowed all over the ground. "You weren't thirsty?"

"No. I don't get thirsty."

Ami nodded, beginning to stand and once she was unsteadily on her feet, tried to think of an excuse to walk away.

"You know what? I think I'm going to take a walk for a couple of minutes. I'll be close, I just want to move around a bit, I feel stiff," she explained calmly, smiling to hopefully cover her lie.

Trowa stared at her wordlessly, tipping his head at her. Ami felt her breath get caught in her throat and she knew her hands were trembling as she clenched and unclenched her fist by her side. What was he up to?

"You don't need a walk. Stay," he said flatly, still giving her that odd look.

"No I really do," she said, becoming increasingly disturbed with the look he was giving her.

"Stay."

"I'll just be a min-"

"Stay," he interrupted once more. He calmly took a step towards her, once again acting as though his back had never been injured. Ami stepped back, a million thoughts going through her head. Was he trying to scare her? What if he wasn't joking around? He wasn't acting at all like himself but those thoughts sure weren't going to help her as she watched him carefully. If he tried to attack her, she would clearly lose. Her stomach was wounded and she couldn't totally ignore the wound like he was ignoring his. Plus, Trowa had the gun.

"Trowa, you stop. You're scaring me," she tried. He nodded at her words.

"Good."

"Hey-" Before Ami could even blink, he had closed the cap between them and slapped her across the face with all his might.

Too shocked to even cry out, Ami sank to her knees and grabbed her cheek.

Something was seriously wrong with him, there was no way Trowa would hurt her under normal circumstances. Would he? Sure, she had known him a little under five days, but they had been together all the time. Trowa had saved her countless times and she had helped him a little too.

"What happened to you when you walked away earlier?" She asked with a frown, and he shrugged, staring down at her emotionlessly.

"Nothing."

The two stared at each other another moment, before she leapt to her feet, trying to make a run for it as fast as she could go.

Trowa moved with inhumane speed, closing the gap between them and tackling her to the floor. Ami cried out this time, her stomach feeling like it had been re-opened.

"There's no point in screaming," Trowa said calmly. "No one's around."

"Get off me!"

"No," he said, still entirely calm although she was panicking. He held her down with a steel like grip, the look he was giving her bizarre.

"You're not Trowa! What did you do to him?"

Trowa stared down at her emotionlessly, before a smirk began to play on his lips. Bending down, he brought his face down by hers, his lips only centimeters from her ear.

"Aren't I?" He muttered, Ami turning her face away. This was definitely not Trowa.

"Hmm. Fine, be like that," he said with a shrug, moving to get off of her. Ami's eyes widened. He was letting her up? Why?

He reached a hand down to help her up once he had stood, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. He laughed now.

"You're right to be suspicious." Since she did not give him her hand, Trowa simply reached down and grabbed her off the floor. Holding her unwillingly, he began to walk back to where they had been before, only about twenty feet away.

"Put me down," she shouted, struggling to free herself from his grip. This was so bizarre; did he think he could just injure her and then move on like nothing had happened?

"You want me to put you down? Fine," he said calmly, and she screamed as he threw her to the ground, stomping on her back to stop her from crawling away.

She gasped, trying to regain her breath as he turned her onto her back, once again giving her that odd look.

He leaned down and reached towards her, but Ami was prepared this time as she kicked upwards, connecting with his head.

He stumbled backwards a moment, but it seemed to have been all it took as his eyes suddenly became clear, like they normally would look. They widened in shock before he screamed, "Ami! Run!"

Then as soon as the words had escaped his mouth, his eyes flashed red and a sadistic smile took over his face as the same dull look returned to his eyes.

Ami gasped. That shadow being was inside Trowa! Those red eyes could only belong to that sadistic creature.

She turned as quickly as she possibly could, leaping to her feet to try and run away.

"Not so fast," he said, catching her and placing his arms under her chin and around her waist to hold her.

"You're that shadow creature from earlier," she said, and he began to laugh.

"Well done. Knowing that won't stop me from hurting you though. You and your little boyfriend had it coming. In his body, I'm unaffected by his previous injuries and I'm faster than he normally would be. Plus, all you have are your powers and you don't even have that right now."

With all of her might, Ami elbowed him in his side. His grip loosened and she ran away, him on her heels.

True, she had a little more strength than the creature was giving her credit for. However, she was still at a disadvantage and wouldn't be able to take too many more hits from him.

"Hold it!" Ami was once more knocked painfully to the ground, and knew her stomach wound must have begun to bleed more at this point.

He stood and she struggled to get off the ground, pain ripping through her waist.

"Don't move." Ami ignored him, beginning to crawl away. He laughed, before his face contorted in anger.

"I said not to move!"

He kicked her in the side and she cried out, grabbing it.

"That's what you get for not obeying me. I'm in charge now," he said flippantly, glancing down at her in disgust before kicking her in the same spot again with the same amount of force. She groaned, and he did it once more. Turning to her right, Ami began to cough up blood.

He smirked. "Was that really all it took? You truly are pathetic." At those words, he kicked her once more, this time in the head. She collapsed entirely this time, her head swimming.

"Good, that's good. Just don't move," he stated, looking around the area. "What more can we do to you?"

Glancing down at her, he was not surprised to see she was moving. Rolling his eyes, he approached her and made sure his kick contained force as he kicked her in the head again. She collapsed with a scream this time, blacking out a few seconds before blinking open her eyes.

Glancing up, she noticed that he was grabbing his head, looking in pain.

"Trowa really doesn't want me in here. He's been fighting me the whole time but he's really pissed now," he said through gritted teeth, screaming. The black shadow suddenly left his body.

Trowa's eyes returned to normal and the shadow creature disappeared with a laugh before Trowa could pull the trigger on the revolver he had pulled out.

"Damn it!" Trowa shouted, throwing the gun to the floor and turning to Ami. She wasn't moving, but as he crouched next to her he could see that she was breathing steadily. His hands shook more than he expected them to as he turned her over. She was conscious but her eyes were trying to stay focused.

"I'm sorry," he said, guilt heavily lacing his voice. Picking her up off the ground, he walked back to where they had sat before. He was beginning to feel the pain in his back once the creature left his body, as well as his injured ribs that he had almost forgotten about. The satchel lay abandoned on the ground, and he re-wrapped Ami's waist, before setting her down on the grass.

There was nothing more he could do for her now. She wasn't bleeding from anywhere else unless it was internal bleeding being that she was coughing up blood, but he didn't know what to do for that either.

Ami was seemingly asleep as he glanced down at her. He shook his head. Had he been trying to fight off the shadow creature? Yes. However he clearly hadn't been strong enough. Looking at the abandoned gun on the floor, he picked it up. One of the remaining three bullets was for that creature. If he had killed its brother with a sword, a bullet would surely be enough.

Tucking the gun away, he began to button his shirt, which the creature had strangely found uncomfortable. A small sound to his left caught his attention, and he glanced down at Ami, whom was beginning to move around. She tried to sit up, clearly trying to discern where she was as she gazed quietly around the area.

For a reason unknown to him, Trowa's heart began to thud loudly in his chest and he felt as though he were short on breath all of a sudden.

The sun was low in the sky now, and she frowned. It had been late afternoon, but where had the time gone. For that matter, why was her head throbbing and why was she in so much pain? Had she blacked out? Two arms wrapped around her, shaking her from her confusion as she realized that Trowa was hugging her and remembered what happened.

"Ami I am so sorry," he said in a low voice, and Ami frowned.

"What? Why? You didn't do this. Thanks for stopping him."

Trowa sighed. Typical Ami, she couldn't think of laying the blame.

"I didn't do it fast enough Ami, but I promise you I won't let anything happen to you anymore," he swore, not releasing his hold on her. Ami blushed slightly, glad for the fact that Trowa couldn't see her face. Her happiness for that fact was short lived as he pulled away and stared down at her a moment, locking her own blue eyes with his intense green ones.

"From now on and until we get out of this place, I won't leave your side," he stated seriously.

"Ah, Trowa that's really not necessa-" she began to say, but lost her words as he leaned down and placed a light kiss on the top of her forehead.

Her blush returned full force as she looked down and away, Trowa smirking slightly at the sight and pulling hr back into his arms for another hug.

"Come on," he said. "Let's get you some aspirin so you can get some sleep," he said, and she nodded numbly as he pulled away. Why the hell was she suddenly so weak in the knees? She watched Trowa stand and get the aspirin and her canteen, realizing it wasn't her injuries that were causing it.

* * *

I am sooooooooo sorry for the delay on this chapter, life majorly got in the way the last few weeks but the story is definaltely doing to begin picking up in pace over the next few chapters because the plot is about to unfold ;) Thanks for reading and please review!


	6. Day 6

Last Time:

_Ami was seemingly asleep as he glanced down at her. He shook his head. Had he been trying to fight off the shadow creature? Yes. However he clearly hadn't been strong enough. Looking at the abandoned gun on the floor, he picked it up. One of the remaining three bullets was for that creature. If he had killed its brother with a s2word, a bullet would surely be enough._

_Tucking the gun away, he began to button his shirt, which the creature had strangely found uncomfortable. A small sound to his left caught his attention, and he glanced down at Ami, whom was beginning to move around. She tried to sit up, clearly trying to discern where she was as she gazed quietly around the area._

_For a reason unknown to him, Trowa's heart began to thud loudly in his chest and he felt as though he were short on breath all of a sudden._

_The sun was low in the sky now, and she frowned. It had been late afternoon, but where had the time gone. For that matter, why was her head throbbing and why was she in so much pain? Had she blacked out? Two arms wrapped around her, shaking her from her confusion as she realized that Trowa was hugging her and remembered what happened._

"_Ami I am so sorry," he said in a low voice, and Ami frowned._

"_What? Why? You didn't do this. Thanks for stopping him."_

_Trowa sighed. Typical Ami, she couldn't think of laying the blame._

"_I didn't do it fast enough Ami, but I promise you I won't let anything happen to you anymore," he swore, not releasing his hold on her. Ami blushed slightly, glad for the fact that Trowa couldn't see her face. Her happiness for that fact was short lived as he pulled away and stared down at her a moment, locking her own blue eyes with his intense green ones._

"_From now on and until we get out of this place, I won't leave your side," he stated seriously._

"_Ah, Trowa that's really not necessa-" she began to say, but lost her words as he leaned down and placed a light kiss on the top of her forehead._

_Her blush returned full force as she looked down and away, Trowa smirking slightly at the sight and pulling hr back into his arms for another hug._

"_Come on," he said. "Let's get you some aspirin so you can get some sleep," he said, and she nodded numbly as he pulled away. Why the hell was she suddenly so weak in the knees? She watched Trowa stand and get the aspirin and her canteen, realizing it wasn't her injuries that were causing it._

Day 6

It was the silence that alerted Trowa to a problem. The area the two had fallen asleep in had been lush, with green grass and ponds surrounding a gorgeous blue lake. The blue lake he had fallen asleep next to while listening to a few birds chirp.

Still groggy, Trowa breathed in deeply and blinked a few times. Strange....it wasn't sunny today either. In fact, unlike the other day, it was getting chilly. Stretching his arms, he was quick to observe that he was now lying on cracked and hardened dirt ground, not grass.

He sat up, and saw that Ami was still soundly asleep in the exact place she had been the night before, the sound of her quiet breathing the only sound in the area. The two were also still next to the same lake in the area, except now the lake was murky and green.

The trees in the distance had wilted and the silence was starting to get eerie.

"Unbelievable," he muttered quietly. The area had deteriorated at the rate it would take a normal dying ecosystem hundreds of years in merely a few hours.

The sound of moving water suddenly met his ears, and Trowa frowned. The lake behind him had been perfectly still.....

Before he could even turn around to look, something wrapped itself firmly around his ankle and yanked him backwards.

"Hmm?" Trowa's face hit the ground and he gasped as he began to be unceremoniously dragged towards the lake with absolutely no idea how it was happening to him. Flipping himself sort of onto his back, his eyes widened as he saw what looked to be a tentacle holding his ankle, the only thing coming out of the water.

Thinking fast, Trowa's hands flew to his slacks where the gun was tucked into the waist, but he had submerged with a shout before he could do so.

Ami was awake and on her feet a split-second later, blinking rapidly and trying to clear her head as she had seen Trowa go under.

Having no time to observe the terrain around her or wonder what the hell was happening, Ami dove into the murky water after him.

Trying to see in the water was difficult, and Ami could make out Trowa's blurry figure far beneath her. He was struggling against something, although she never would have guessed what it was until she swam closer.

The first thing she noticed was that Trowa must have swallowed some water because he didn't look too good. Approaching closer, she tugged on his hand trying to figure out why he was stuck and was quick to notice that there was a dark green tentacle gripping Trowa's ankle. Following where the tentacle had come from, it took everything she had in her not to scream when she saw the two large black eyes watching them from the murky depths below.

Ami shuddered, willing herself to focus on how to free Trowa. If she had only had her powers, this would have all been too easy.

The creature, whatever it was, began to tug more on Trowa, and Ami began to panic.

Trowa got her attention, indicating weakly at the waist of his slacks. He wasn't going to make it very long; Ami knew this as she quickly reached into the waist of his slacks and pulled out the revolver. Swimming slightly lower, she placed the revolver right against the tentacle that held Trowa's ankle, pulled back the safety and fired.

An audible screech tore through the water and Ami covered her ears momentarily, also conscious that it was the first time she had ever fired a gun. The creature came up a little more and into view, as Ami suddenly became aware of just how many teeth it possessed on its ugly face.

The grip on Trowa's ankle had only weakened slightly. She had to think fast.

Placing the gun against the tentacle again, she once again fired. The tentacle automatically released his ankle after the second shot, and Trowa began to drop slightly as Ami realized he was no longer conscious. Ami swam up quickly and grabbed Trowa's arm, hearing the creature screeching in pain beneath them.

Her own lungs were burning but she knew there was a great chance that Trowa wouldn`t survive as she willed herself to go further, thankful that she was such a good swimmer.

The two broke the surface and Ami swam to the edge, dragging Trowa behind her. She let the gun clatter to the floor and dragged Trowa far from the water's edge to avoid a similar incident as she tried to regain her breath.

Placing her ear against his chest, she paused a moment before her fears were reaffirmed. He wasn't breathing at all and Ami acted quickly, her head swimming as she tried to think coherently.

She put her hands together and pushed down on his chest five times, beginning to perform CPR without another moment's hesitation.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5," she murmured the count of chest compressions between her own ragged breaths, tilting his head back from his chin and breathing into his mouth repeatedly between counts. Trowa remained unresponsive as she did so, making tears begin to blur her vision as quickly began losing hope. It was taking an unusually long time; he should have responded by now....

Ami persisted stubbornly, her throat hurting and her chest feeling heavy as she grew more upset. How could she not have saved him sooner? After all he had done for her, how could she not do more? Her emotions began to get the best of her as she realized she needed him, and not just to survive in this place. Ami was more attached than she would have guessed.

Trowa turned to the right and began to cough, halting her in the chest compressions she was performing on him as her eyes widened.

His vision was blurry and he began to breathe steadily, trying to get a sense of his surroundings. What the hell had just happened?

His hand flew to cover his eyes from the light as he tried to sit up, before Ami's face was suddenly in his line of vision and she was helping him.

Trowa's eyes widened as he put two and two together. She had saved him, and had obviously performed CPR since he was pretty sure he had passed out in the water. His shock intensified as she suddenly burst into tears.

"It's okay," he said softly, still trying to regain his bearings. "I'm okay. Thank you."

Ami's response was to wrap him in a crushing hug as she tried to get her tears under control, her extreme relief evident.

Trowa hugged her back, realizing she was shaking although he was quick to attribute that to the fact that area they were in was now cold and the two of them were wet.

"Are you okay?" he murmured, pulling back and staring at her. "You were the injured one yesterday."

"I heal fast," she explained, blushing slightly as she realized how close their faces were although neither one of them moved to break eye contact or pull away.

Trowa smirked slightly at her blush, wondering if it was the near death experience that made him bolder than usual as he suddenly closed the gap between them and began to kiss her. It was tentative at first, almost as though he sought her approval, but almost immediately became more passionate. He had fallen for her, and strangely enough he had sort of known that from the moment he laid eyes on her and realized that he just couldn't shut up when she was around.

Ami's shock quickly diminished as she found herself kissing him back with the equal intensity, ignoring the nagging voice in the back of her head that told her she was now beyond attached.

The two parted slightly, both breathing heavily and silent. Ami felt Trowa pull her closer and into a hug, completely avoiding discussing what had just occurred, a fact that Ami did not mind as she leaned her head against his chest, still exhausted from the previous ordeal.

This felt right. She felt safe. Ami just wondered what she would do when they had to part for good.

* * *

Ami didn't know how long the two had sat there in silence, but she figured it had been a while as the sun was slightly lower in the sky when the two felt strong enough to continue on their journey with no clear destination.

Trowa helped Ami get to her feet and found the forgotten revolver, keeping in mind as he checked it that they now had only one bullet left.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" He asked and she nodded, feeling like her stomach had begun to heal a bit more. Her head felt a lot better today too.

"How are you? I know your ribs are probably still bad...and your back..."

"I'm fine. I've been through worse," he said, also picking up the satchel they had been carrying. This area was bad and they needed to get a move on. "Come on," he said, turning to her and spotting a necklace on her that he hadn't noticed before. He sighed, and she realized what he meant quickly as her hand flew to the offensive black moon necklace. She removed it quickly and threw it on the ground, disgusted that it was once again on her after she awoke.

"Let's just get out of here," she muttered. He nodded, taking her hand as the two hurried out of the area.

"I had a weird dream yesterday afternoon," Ami said a few minutes later as they walked together, hoping they were out of this scary place soon.

"I had one last night too," he said, turning to look at her. "Care to share?"

She nodded. "I think it's important. I finally remembered coming to your time."

"I remembered seeing you in my 'time'," he quoted. "You go first."

She nodded, and began to explain.

"_Wow, for a different dimension, this place looks a lot like our world," Minako commented as they headed down the street, having just emerged from the time gates and de-transformed._

"_Well then I guess you forgot that we're on a space colony," Rei retorted, and Minako rolled her eyes in response as Usagi began to laugh. _

"_Take it easy everyone. We still have to keep our guards up," Makoto warned, Ami nodding in agreement as she surveyed the area. Mamoru looked around,, keeping an eye on Usagi while trying to figure out where they were. The enemy base had to be around here somewhere....._

_Usagi went running ahead with Minako, the two of them laughing as they glanced back at the group and tried to irritate Rei. Rei kept her cool, although she continued to glare at them when they looked back at her._

"_Hold on Mako. Let's see what street we're on," Ami said, stopping at the corner. Makoto stopped with her, however Usagi and Minako were totally unaware and kept walking. _

"_Hey you two, slow down! Ami and Mako stopped! All we need is to get lost in this strange city," Rei called after the two, following them at a much faster pace. _

_Usagi and Minako turned the corner as they stared back at Rei, and Rei heard a small shout and a lot of ruckus as she came around the corner, placing her head in her hands temperamentally. True to Usagi's nature, she had smacked into the group of men whom had been coming around the corner. Minako had her hands on her knees as she laughed, while Usagi and the braided man on the floor tried to somehow modestly untangle themselves from each other. _

"_Oh- ahh, I am sooo sorry," she said sheepishly as Mamoru came running around the corner to help her up, shaking his head and smirking. _

_Ami and Makoto followed the others around the corner, staring at the group of men in front if them. _

_Ami glanced around at the five men, pausing when she made eye contact with a man possessing piercing green eyes._

"Wow, that kind of sounds familiar actually," Trowa said quietly. "It sort of picks up where your story left off. Here's what I dreamed."

"_Why do you want to know how that?" Wufei asked the girl with the long black hair in an annoyed sort of way. She glared at him, ready to begin shouting at him. Trowa wondered why she cared about anything weird happening in town, but shrugged. _

_Her blonde friend had basically just trampled Duo and apologized profusely. Trowa looked back at the blue haired girl who had made eye contact with him briefly, but she was currently conversing with a girl who had brown hair in a pony tail and green eyes. Quatre was discussing something with the two of them and the brown haired girl was blushing at him slightly. _

_The other blonde with the red bow in her hair had finally stopped laughing at the girl who trampled Duo. She stepped in to avoid conflict between her friend and Wufei, smiling sweetly at him and touching his arm slightly as she flirted with him. Wufei looked baffled and blushed slightly, going silent. The black haired girl rolled her eyes and turned to question Heero, this time just asking him if he knew of any nice tourist spots on L2. Heero, staying incognito, began to nod and point the girl in the right direction. He was questioning her lightly but not obnoxiously like Wufei had done. _

_The girl who had crashed into Duo was currently conversing with her apparent boyfriend and him. Duo was laughing and cracking jokes as they all talked hurriedly. _

_Not sure why he really cared, he joined the conversation between Quatre and the blue and brown haired girls. _

"_Oh," Quatre said as Trowa approached. "This is my friend Trowa. Trowa, these are Ami and Makoto. They wanted to know of any tourist spots that people find particularly interesting," he explained, his smile empty and his words holding meaning for Trowa. Quatre was suspicious although Trowa wasn't of these two just yet. _

"Wow, so we met each other at the beginning of the day," Ami observed. He nodded. "There was one other thing. You see..."

He paused, unsure of how to say it, before continuing. "I thought we might have known each other for at least a few days, but it seems it wasn't the case. In my dream, you were wearing that same white dress that you woke up in here. My clothes were the same as well, which means that whatever got us stuck here happened in one day."

Ami nodded her head. "I guess that makes sense. I'm not surprised, to be honest with you. Things with our enemies can usually go very wrong and very quickly. Although, I thought I'd remember what happened to us already, especially after dreams so vivid."

"I guess we're just lucky," Trowa joked with a smirk as they walked.

It was once more bitterly cold. The area had been cooler that morning, however within a few hours of walking they had crossed into another terrain. There was only a light snow falling right now, but the two were still damp from the morning's ordeal and were freezing. Ami thanked God that her hair had at least dried before this cold, happy that it was shorter than the other Senshi's hair.

Speaking of the Senshi, her thoughts drifted to them. She wondered how they were doing. It really bothered her that they couldn't remember more about what had happened.

Trowa slowed down his pace from next to her, and he glanced down at their satchel and up at the sky. It was mid afternoon, and she knew why he had slowed down. The two of them had only a small piece of bread left and only half a canteen of water thanks to the shadow being that had spilt the other one yesterday.

The two of them had eaten early yesterday morning, and were both growing more hungry and weak. Ami was pretty sure that Trowa was gauging whether or not they would starve to death here, or more likely die of thirst. After all, if they ate the remaining bread now and were able to make it only a couple of more days and still didn't find help, they were done for. Plus, the two were constantly on the move and going through tough situations. They were likely to be too weak to fight in about a day if things persisted.

Trowa turned his attention back to Ami as they continued their slow pace, knowing she had probably already figured out everything he had just considered. The understanding in her eyes clarified this for him and he smiled at her, his hand brushing her cheek lightly.

The two continued on their way and quickened their pace, staying close and bracing themselves against the cold. Trowa wrapped an arm around her shoulder as the wind and snow picked up, their situation not getting any more favorable. He definitely missed the oasis they had fallen asleep in last night. It must have been true that good things never last forever.

* * *

Another few hours passed them as they walked, conversing slightly but mostly worried about getting out of the area they were in. Trowa glanced back down at Ami as they moved. She was shivering slightly and was deathly pale. Was that from the cold? Her eyes were focused on where they were heading and she looked slightly worried. He was too.

What about his friends? Were they really in a similar situation? Were they, perhaps, wandering this depressing place as well? It was difficult to say. Perhaps they had met up with Ami's friends too. After all, he and Ami had somehow wound up together and according to him and Ami's dreams, they had all been acquainted that first day.

Also, what would happen when and if they did get out of this place and find their friends somehow? Ami had told him that she and her friends had only come to his dimension to seek out a possible enemy. Technically, they were never supposed to meet. When they got out of this place, would he and Ami have to separate forever? The mere thought hurt him more than he thought it could.

The sun continued to travel lower into the sky and Trowa was shaken from his thoughts when he felt Ami's grip on him slacken as she sank from his own grip, and quickly.

He gasped, understanding why she had seemed so pale now as he caught her waist before she hit the ground.

"Ami?" He shook her slightly as he crouched down to the ground with her, and she stirred immediately.

"S-sorry," she muttered, her eyes opening and closing as she struggled to get up. "Let's just keep moving."

"No," Trowa said firmly, leaning her against his knees as he rifled through the satchel for the canteen. "We've been walking all day. I should have suggested a break sooner," he added the last part regretfully, finding the canteen and opening the top. Ami shook her head at him, but was unable to do more as she passed out again, falling limp against him.

"Shit," he muttered, tapping her cheek lightly. She moved slightly and he raised her slightly and tilted her head back as he poured some water into her mouth.

Ami blinked, focusing on Trowa's face. He stared at her intensely, trying to figure out if she was okay. Ami surprisingly did not blush although perhaps it was the combination of the cold and the fact that she was dehydrated.

"Here," he said, not missing a beat as he passed her a piece of bread. One look at it told Ami it was the piece they were supposed to be sharing, and she feebly tore it in half and placed the other piece in his hand with a slight glare.

Trowa smirked, taking a sip of water and offering her another as she took a couple of difficult bites of the bread, wary that it was the last of their food. Trowa finished his bread and watched as she finished hers. He was in no way satisfied by the tiny piece of bread and few sips of water, but knew it had still strengthened him slightly.

Judging by how Ami was now fully alert, he knew it had done the same for her. They took a break for only five more minutes. The sun was low in the sky and they were nowhere near a safe spot to sleep.

Trowa helped Ami stand, and she insisted that she was fine and apologized again as they continued against the cold and snow.

It grew darker, and Trowa began to realize that it was futile to try and find shelter at this point. They were in the middle of nowhere and that fact was unchanging. Would they freeze to death tonight?

Ami hugged her arms closer to herself, Trowa's arm only shielding her slightly from the wind and snow. This was ridiculous. They should have come upon a shelter of some sort by now, and they were both exhausted as their day had been crazy from the morning. She knew Trowa was probably more exhausted than she was although he probably refused to show it. He felt like he had to take care of her and this fact made Ami feel useless despite the fact that she had helped him that morning.

The continued persistently, perhaps hoping that by same stroke of luck they would stumble upon a shelter, but nothing happened. It was now almost too dark to see in front of them, and the only sound in the area was the howling wind.

"How will we survive the night like this," Ami questioned, vocalizing her fears.

"I don't know," Trowa replied, tensing as he realized she thought they were going to freeze here too.

Their conversation and previous worries were suddenly cut short as the wind suddenly intensified and then died.

"Hmm?" Ami glanced up in shock. No more wind? Why? Had the terrain suddenly changed? The snow had lightened slightly as well, coming down in flurries but much better. Was it a dream come true? They might be able to survive the night now. It was pitch black out, they certainly had to stop.

Trowa could tell from Ami's silence that she was pleased with the slight weather change, but something wasn't right. It was quiet. True, that could have been attributed to the fact that the howling wind had died, but still.....

His eyes widened and his body moved before he had even thought about it. Ami gasped as Trowa knocked her to the ground and as a result landed with a sickening thud on his shoulder, not a split second before a line of arrows flew over their heads.

"T-trowa?" Ami whispered, suddenly wary of how much noise they were making and hoping that the darkness would hide them from whoever had shot the arrows at them. Trowa groaned from beneath her, and Ami's eyes widened when she saw him clutching his left shoulder.

"I....have to push it back in," he murmured, and Ami struggled to see him better as she sat up, kneeling next to his prone body. He was applying pressure to his arm and Ami was quick to notice that it was dislocated and he was trying to push it back in.

"Your shoulder?" She muttered, and he nodded painfully, keeping much quieter than she would have. Ami nodded, reaching over to grab his left arm. He glanced up at her, meeting her eyes in the darkness and nodding. He probably could push it in himself in a minute, but this would be much easier on him. He took a deep breath, and Ami counted to three in her head before she quickly pushed it back in. Trowa inhaled sharply and she knew he was just trying to be quiet lest they alert whoever had shot at them where they were.

Ami bit her lip, touching his face lightly and frowning. His shoulder would probably hurt for days now, and it would be excruciating pain without medication. They had aspirin but she was sure it wouldn't be strong enough.

Trowa inhaled as Ami's hand brushed his cheek, his skin feeling hot although it was cold out.

"I'm fine," he muttered, his hand finding hers as he gave it a reassuring squeeze.

He began to sit up, pushing himself up, and Ami helped him as the two looked around the dark area. They couldn't see anything at all, who could have possibly shot those arrows?

Trowa was soon crouched next to her, looking around alertly. His right arm grabbed her by the waist, and she glanced over at him. He looked ready to move any second.

"Take it easy, you'll hurt yourself again," she whispered.

"I heard something," he replied, straining to see.

"Who goes there?" A loud voice called out. Trowa and Ami stood slowly, raising their hands above their heads and approaching slowly. In the dark, they began to make out the figures of soldiers. One of them carried a torch and stood in the front, approaching Ami and Trowa and shining the torch over them.

"You are trespassing on the territory of Dundalk. The rules of Norman Ireland forbid you to come to this area, one of the King's castles is here."

"We apologize," Ami said immediately, realizing that Norman Ireland was when King Henry II invaded Ireland under the Pope's command. It must have been the late Middle Ages then. Some of the soldiers had a bow and arrow in hand, others held swords.

"We lost our way, but we'll just turn around," Trowa explained, not wanting to be in another castle's dungeon like they were just four days earlier. He snaked his arm around Ami's waist, beginning to pull her away from the soldiers and into the darkness.

"Halt," the leader said again. The two stopped.

"Are you from outside of the Dublin- Dundalk strip?"

"No," Ami said immediately. She didn't know the politics of the area but she was pretty sure what the soldier meant was that King Henry II only had control of that specific region.

"We were robbed," Trowa explained, "We were on our way to visit with family."

"Well 'yer accents are funny," another soldier stated, keeping the light trained on both of their faces.

Trowa and Ami said nothing, and the leading soldier walked around them with the torch, probably trying to assess whether or not Trowa had a sword on him.

"Their clothing is strange too," another soldier pointed out, "Particularly the lady's."

Ami frowned. They were wearing the clothes Saori had given, them from around the 1930's. This was probably before the year 1200 AD. While Trowa's dress pants and button down shirt were sure to confuse the soldiers, Ami's knee-length dress was probably baffling them to no end.

The leading soldier took a closer look at Ami's dress, holding the torch nearer to her. Trowa's arm tightened around her waist, and Ami glanced over at him. He looked tense, and she wondered suddenly if he was just worried or truly suspicious of the soldiers.

The soldier smirked slightly, looking up from Ami's dress and meeting her eyes. She stared back, not too sure of what to think at the moment.

"I don't know where you two are from," the leading soldier said with a shrug, "but you're not from the Dublin-Dundalk strip. Therefore, you are now trespassing prisoners, and we have strict rules about trespassing."

Trowa knew there were a few arrows now pointed at him despite the dark, and another soldier lit up a torch to confirm his suspicions.

"We don't want any trouble," Ami said, wondering how much worse this day could possibly get.

"You've already got yourself in some trouble my dear," the leader said, smiling at her in a way Ami really did not care for.

"What are you doing? Locking us up?" Trowa demanded, trying to gauge just how much danger they were currently in.

"Not at all," the leader explained calmly. "You see, I would have just locked you up. You are however traveling with a pretty lady, and my men and I have been patrolling these lonely borders for months."

Trowa growled and reached to grab the revolver from his waist. The soldiers saw it and he was knocked to the ground. Standing, he kicked the arrow from one of the soldier's hands and then punched him in the face a split second later. A few of the soldiers jumped him, knocking him to the floor and beginning to hit him.

"Trowa!" Ami shouted, rushing towards the group. A soldier that was as of yet uninvolved grabbed her wrist, and Ami turned and kicked him in the face. He gasped, stumbling back from the force of the kick a mere woman had landed on him.

"This one's a fighter," one of the remaining three soldiers commented.

"Even more interesting," the leader commented, motioning with his hands at the two soldiers who were silent. "Grab her."

Ami turned, not having a moment before the two soldiers grabbed her arms and knocked her to the ground, pinning them down.

The leader and two remaining soldiers approached. The one Ami had kicked hung back slightly, looking angry with her as he held a torch over the group. The leader and other soldier stood over her.

"You get the honor of going first," the leader said with a smug look, clapping a hand on the man's shoulder. "You defeated that Gaelic soldier the other day."

'Shit,' Ami thought, trying to remain calm as she looked over to where Trowa fought the other soldiers. There was a lot of shouting from over there but thanks to the dark she couldn't see.

The soldier approached, standing above Ami and beginning to bend down.

'Oh no you don't,' Ami thought, kicking up when she knew he was close enough. Her heel connected with a satisfying crack and the man screamed loudly, falling to the floor. The man holding the torch bent down to check on him as one of the men holding Ami's arms down hit her in the face. She groaned, knowing her cheek would definitely bruise.

"The woman is mine then," the leader said stoically, glaring at Ami. "Clearly none of you can handle her."

He was on top of her before she could begin to kick, the men whom had been holding her arms not releasing them but shifting away slightly. Ami screamed and he punched her in the stomach to silence her.

Meanwhile Trowa had knocked out two of the soldiers who had jumped him. However, three more remained. He found arrows and swords pointed at him once he finally got to his feet, realizing the men had done a lot of damage to him as well as he staggered back a step and grew dizzy. Too many hits to his head...

Going for his last chance, Trowa managed to pull out the revolver and hold it up at the three men. Two of the men laughed at the small metal that meant nothing to them, but one of them stared at it critically. "I've- I've heard of those."

Ami screamed and thrashed as the leader attempted to lift her skirt.

"Silence!" He screamed, finally losing his temper with her. The leader punched her in the head, temporarily silencing her but not for long. Ami, perhaps out of an adrenaline rush thanks to her severe fear, pulled her right arm free from the soldier whom was staring at the fight between Trowa and the others. She hit the leader in the face, pleased as his grip on her lessened and she began to shuffle backwards. The man holding her left arm held her tight and she kicked him in the chest with her now free legs.

He gasped and the leader was now enraged at the trouble the girl was causing. Grabbing the hilt of his sword, he hit Ami in the head with it using as much force as he could. She dropped, blacking out a few seconds, as he tossed his sword aside and approached her.

Climbing on top of her, there was no need for her to be pinned down by the others as she struggled to stay conscious. His hand slid beneath her skirt and she seemed to come to, groaning and attempting to knock him away. He grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head with his left hand, sitting between her legs as his right hand continued to travel up her leg. His cold hand ran up her thigh and Ami struggled violently as she tried to quell the disgust she was feeling and think clearly.

The leader's mouth suddenly found hers, and Ami kept her lips shut firmly as his tongue tried to pry into her mouth. His other hand released her arms as he grabbed her breasts, ignoring her struggles and her hands trying to hit him away.

"You have a few precious seconds to get off of her," a cold voice tore through the air.

He stopped his assault, sitting up slightly to face Trowa, who looked beyond pissed.

The leader searched for his soldiers to find them all standing off to the side and looking afraid.

"You weaklings! What are you doing?" He demanded, his eyes suddenly focusing on the revolver in Trowa's hands.

"Wait....it couldn't be.....I've heard of the metal weapons being created using gun powder from the Indies but...not like this. The East India Trading company has yet to ship anything."

Trowa approached him, and the leader did not move off of Ami.

"What are you still doing on top of her?" Trowa asked him stoically.

"You're bluffing! You're tricking us! You couldn't have one!"

Pointing the gun at the leader's leg, Trowa removed the safety and fired. If the sound of the gun alone didn't make all of the remaining soldiers clear the area, their leader's anguished scream certainly did.

He fell off of Ami, dragging himself towards the screams of his frightened men and cursing. Trowa threw the revolver on the ground, it being useless as it now was out of bullets.

Ami was on her knees, crawling over to him as he approached before collapsing to the ground. She felt violated but could tell that Trowa was really hurt, in much more physical pain than she was.

"Trowa," she muttered, realizing he was struggling to stay conscious. She turned him onto his back, trying to assess how badly he was wounded but unable to see.

"Huh?" Trowa's arms encircled her waist as he pulled her down on top of him, hugging her close to him.

"Did he hurt you?" Trowa asked quietly.

"N-no," she said, resisting hugging Trowa back tightly lest she hurt him more. "How can I help you right now? Are you bleeding?"

Trowa ignored her, and she could hear his soft yet steady breathing.

"I'm exhausted," he muttered finally. "I don't think I could handle one more thing happening today. I just want to sleep...."

Ami couldn't agree more as she allowed herself to relax in his arms and try to forget all about the day's events. Sleep sounded like heaven right now.

Seeing her finally relax, Trowa kissed the top of her head and leaned his head back, quickly drifting off to sleep.

* * *

There it is, and all will be revealed in the next chapter! Review!


	7. Day 7

Hey all, here's the chapter that shall reveal everything! You'll notice that the things remembered will include some of the flashbacks given throughout the story as well. I've really been waiting to write this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it! Also, it's long. You're welcome. Please review! I need feedback for this chapter!

* * *

Last Time:

_Ami was on her knees, crawling over to him as he approached before collapsing to the ground. She felt violated but could tell that Trowa was really hurt, in much more physical pain than she was. _

"_Trowa," she muttered, realizing he was struggling to stay conscious. She turned him onto his back, trying to assess how badly he was wounded but unable to see. _

"_Huh?" Trowa's arms encircled her waist as he pulled her down on top of him, hugging her close to him. _

"_Did he hurt you?" Trowa asked quietly. _

"_N-no," she said, resisting hugging Trowa back tightly lest she hurt him more. "How can I help you right now? Are you bleeding?"_

_Trowa ignored her, and she could hear his soft yet steady breathing. _

"_I'm exhausted," he muttered finally. "I don't think I could handle one more thing happening today. I just want to sleep...."_

_Ami couldn't agree more as she allowed herself to relax in his arms and try to forget all about the day's events. Sleep sounded like heaven right now._

_Seeing her finally relax, Trowa kissed the top of her head and leaned his head back, quickly drifting off to sleep. _

Day 7

That morning had been rough. Ami stretched her sore arms slightly as they walked, the area around them cloudy and barren. She had once more awoken to find the black moon necklace around her neck, but that had been quickly discarded as she felt she had not a moment for it that day.

The two had been injured and still exhausted when they woke up, Trowa more so than Ami as on top of his other injuries; the pain from his dislocated shoulder was massive. He had been wrapped up and taken some aspirin but Ami was sure it wouldn't be enough. Ami glanced up at Trowa, who looked in pain even as he tried to hide it. To top it off, they were both starving again and knew they had no more food. They had each taken a couple of sips of water that morning, and from how empty the canteen sounded Ami was sure there was probably only another small sip or two left within it. She refused to drink it, knowing that Trowa would need to take more aspirin soon and that it would be pretty awful dry swallowing or chewing it.

Trowa tried to forget about how much pain he was in as they walked, limping from his other injuries those soldiers had inflicted on him. He was so overly exhausted from what they had been through in the last few days that he had been feeling like survival wasn't going to be an option anymore. This barren waste land went on forever, didn't it? If they weren't in a strange and unfamiliar time in history, then they walked empty lands such as this. They had wandered so long that it felt like they would continue to go on lost like this forever.

"I wonder," he said to Ami, his mouth feeling dry, "If we really are doomed to do this forever. I've never been on such a long journey with no destination....."

Ami's eyes widened as she looked up at him. "I was thinking about that as we wandered through the labyrinth a couple of days ago. It's......familiar," she said, looking thoughtful. "I just can't seem to place where I've heard of something like this before."

"Me either," he said, frowning at the thought. Where had he heard that before?

Trowa and Ami stopped speaking a moment as the sound of screams reached their ears. One moment, they had been standing in the barren wasteland, and in the next they were standing together within a shouting crowd of people.

"What the-" Trowa clamped a hand over her mouth, backing out of the crowd with her silently. Their shoes clattered on the stone ground. Behind the crowd was a large palace, and they stood in a crowd within a circular area. The crowd was not screaming in terror, but rather shouting in fury or looking excited.

They were distinctly shouting in French, which was why Trowa had not wanted Ami to speak in a different language amongst the angry crowds. A woman passed by Ami and Trowa holding a program of some sort, and the two glanced up at the center of attraction that everyone was gathered around. Their mouths dropped open.

In the center of the stage was a guillotine. The sharp metal of the contraption that would soon behead the man sitting on stage glinted in the sunlight. The man sat trembling slightly as people shouted around him, while what seemed to be a judge read him his sentence. An executioner was standing next to the man calmly, pausing to look at two more men whose hands were bound behind the first man.

Already knowing where she was and suspecting that she knew "when" they were, Ami approached a vendor handing out programs such as the one she had seen a woman holding. The man smiled and passed her one of the papers, and she was next to Trowa a moment later, opening it.

She had learned French in high school and Ami quickly skimmed the program, realization dawning on her face as she realized what it was. Trowa looked down at the date on the program.

_20 novembre 1793_

November 1793? The year sounded familiar....

Ami lowered the program, frowning. "We're in Paris, during the French revolution. More specifically, during the Reign of Terror...."

"Reign of Terror?" He murmured, not wanting passerby's to hear them. "You mean when the French were executing government officials left and right?"

She nodded, whispering. "Yes. This means that Louis the 16th and Marie-Antoinette have already been executed."

The crowd in front of them screamed in triumph and Ami and Trowa heard the sickening sound as the guillotine's blade beheaded one of the men.

"Let's get out of here," she whispered to Trowa. "All we need is for someone to notice our strange clothing and call us foreigners. We'll be jailed and possibly put to trial for execution."

He nodded, and the two quickly fled from the area, moving into more deserted streets and trying to find a way out of the place.

The streets were like a maze and Ami smiled in triumph as they came upon a dirt road that would probably lead them out of Paris and into the countryside.

"Should we have tried to get some food?" Ami questioned, glancing back towards the city.

"How? Steal it and still end up in jail?" Trowa lightly berated, although he looked back towards the city longingly as well.

"Let's just continue down this road," Ami finally said, staring up at the sky. It was already mid-afternoon and neither one of them was really in the condition to do much today. Perhaps they should start looking for a place to sleep from now?

The two began trudging down the road, the air chilly as it was November.

An hour later their hunger was really starting to wear them down. The dirt road they walked down was broad with grass on both sides spreading as far as the eye could see. Ami knew the countryside of France was supposed to be beautiful, and it would have been far more appreciated from the two of them had they not been cold, starved, and in pain.

Trowa shuffled in the satchel Saori had given them tiredly, shaking Ami from her thoughts. He stopped walking entirely as he found the last two aspirin. His arm shook as he tried to find the canteen, and Ami was at his side digging it out of the satchel instantly. It felt empty, as she had suspected that morning.

Ever selfless and knowing they were both thirsty, Trowa tried to give Ami the canteen.

"Don't be ridiculous," she muttered. He unscrewed the cap and popped the aspirin into his mouth, tipping the canteen towards his lips. A small trickle of water was all Trowa got from the canteen as he swallowed the aspirin practically dry. Ami winced slightly, knowing his throat was already dry.

He dropped the empty canteen on the ground and closed the satchel, staring at the ground a minute. What was wrong with him?

Trowa stared at the ground, willing away how disoriented he was as he met Ami's eyes. She looked scared, and he knew it was fear for him. He cupped her face lightly, offering her a small smile although he felt disheartened. It had been a long week.

Ami sighed, turning and beginning to walk since Trowa seemed a bit better. Why the hell hadn't they gotten anywhere yet? Why hadn't she remembered what had happened? Every time she even felt remotely close to figuring out what had happened to them, they would get attacked or someone would interrupt. Well actually....Ami frowned now. Not someone, _something._

That shadow being: it always seemed to be there when she and Trowa were seriously discussing what had happened. Also, what about those necklaces she kept finding around her neck every time she would wake up? That shadow creature had seemed surprised that she didn't know what they were.

What were they? Also, how did that shadow creature always know where she and Trowa were? They were lost in time....how in the world was this shadow creature managing to tail them? Was it some sort of magic?

"Ami?" Trowa asked from next to her. "Are you alright?"

"Why do you ask," she muttered, her voice sounding like she wasn't paying much attention to him.

"You're looking concerned about something.....I've been thinking though, about how we might have gotten here. I feel like we're so close to figuring it out if we could just remember the rest of our day. Something happened to us that first day....something big. I'm sure of it, if only I could remember...."

"What?" Ami asked, his words striking something within her. It was a heavy feeling of déjà vu, but more so than that, as though in her heart she knew what had happened to them but couldn't place it for the life of her. She knew...or she had once known.....no.....

Trowa gasped as Ami suddenly collapsed to the ground, completely limp.

"What?" he asked in disbelief, crouching down next to her and picking her head and shoulders up from the ground, shaking her slightly.

"Ha, I didn't actually think she would remember before you," a dark voice said from next to him. Trowa turned and stared coldly at the shadow creature that had plagued them from the moment they had arrived.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm just surprised you haven't figured anything out yet. I mean, your situation........the necklaces..........................me," it said, smiling in its sinister way.

"_Wow, for a different dimension, this place looks a lot like our world," Minako commented as they headed down the street, having just emerged from the time gates and de-transformed._

"_Well then I guess you forgot that we're on a space colony," Rei retorted, and Minako rolled her eyes in response as Usagi began to laugh. _

"_Take it easy everyone. We still have to keep our guards up," Makoto warned, Ami nodding in agreement as she surveyed the area. Mamoru looked around, keeping an eye on Usagi while trying to figure out where they were. The enemy base had to be around here somewhere....._

_Usagi went running ahead with Minako, the two of them laughing as they glanced back at the group and tried to irritate Rei. Rei kept her cool, although she continued to glare at them when they looked back at her._

"_Hold on Mako. Let's see what street we're on," Ami said, stopping at the corner. Makoto stopped with her, however Usagi and Minako were totally unaware and kept walking. _

"_Hey you two, slow down! Ami and Mako stopped! All we need is to get lost in this strange city," Rei called after the two, following them at a much faster pace. _

_Usagi and Minako turned the corner as they stared back at Rei, and Rei heard a small shout and a lot of ruckus as she came around the corner, placing her head in her hands temperamentally. True to Usagi's nature, she had smacked into the group of men whom had been coming around the corner. Minako had her hands on her knees as she laughed, while Usagi and the braided man on the floor tried to somehow modestly untangle themselves from each other. _

"_Oh- ahh, I am sooo sorry," she said sheepishly as Mamoru came running around the corner to help her up, shaking his head and smirking. _

_Ami and Makoto followed the others around the corner, staring at the group of men in front if them. _

_Ami glanced around at the five men, pausing when she made eye contact with a man possessing piercing green eyes._

"_Why do you want to know how that?" Wufei asked the girl with the long black hair in an annoyed sort of way. She glared at him, ready to begin shouting at him. Trowa wondered why she cared about anything weird happening in town, but shrugged. _

_Her blonde friend had basically just trampled Duo and apologized profusely. Trowa looked back at the blue haired girl who had made eye contact with him briefly, but she was currently conversing with a girl who had brown hair in a pony tail and green eyes. Quatre was discussing something with the two of them and the brown haired girl was blushing at him slightly. _

_The other blonde with the red bow in her hair had finally stopped laughing at the girl who trampled Duo. She stepped in to avoid conflict between her friend and Wufei, smiling sweetly at him and touching his arm slightly as she flirted with him. Wufei looked baffled and blushed slightly, going silent. The black haired girl rolled her eyes and turned to question Heero, this time just asking him if he knew of any nice tourist spots on L2. Heero, staying incognito, began to nod and point the girl in the right direction. He was questioning her lightly but not obnoxiously like Wufei had done. _

_The girl who had crashed into Duo was currently conversing with her apparent boyfriend and him. Duo was laughing and cracking jokes as they all talked hurriedly. _

_Not sure why he really cared, he joined the conversation between Quatre and the blue and brown haired girls. _

"_Oh," Quatre said as Trowa approached. "This is my friend Trowa. Trowa, these are Ami and Makoto. They wanted to know of any tourist spots that people find particularly interesting," he explained, his smile empty and his words holding meaning for Trowa. Quatre was suspicious although Trowa wasn't of these two just yet. _

"Explain," Trowa shouted, unable to keep his temper down even one moment towards the creature he despised. Ami was still unmoving. She had sat up once and muttered something he didn't quite understand, before blacking out again. What was she seeing?

"You should already know," the creature taunted, begin to pace around Trowa and Ami in a circle. Trowa was too weak to stand, and his fury got in the way as he tried to stop himself from lunging at the creature. He had to know- he just had to know.

"Didn't you ever wonder how all of this was possible," it taunted. "Why the two of you were here alone?"

Trowa remained silent, now trying to get what he could out of the shadow creature.

"I'll tell you one thing for sure...those necklaces on the girl- I was placing those there. They're a spell. Every time I would place it on Ami, even if she would remove it, it would leave something like a 24 hour marker, allowing me to tail you through time. You are lost in time, although.....not in the way that you and the Mercury scout figured you were."

"Go on," Trowa said coldly. The creature shook his head, smirking, its beady red eyes boring into his.

"You'll know soon, although I wish that wasn't the case. I was after all sent to stop you from remembering. My brother and I were actually, you know, the one you killed in the cave. Or did you forget that?" It hissed, its voice rising a few pitches.

_The girls and Mamoru sat crowding a booth at a local diner on the colony. They had left the boys they had run into and now felt exactly like they were at the Crown Arcade back in Tokyo except that they really had no idea where they were. There also didn't seem to be any suspicious activity in the area like Pluto had told them, making their task more difficult. _

"_This sucks," Minako declared, throwing down the fries she had been munching on and sighing as she clanked down at her pale yellow summer dress. She had been having fun at the graduation brunch and was now bored and disappointed. This stupid mission had come out of nowhere and ruined her day. _

"_I agree," Makoto said, sipping her strawberry shake as she wiped some crumbs off of her knee length flowing green skirt and pearl camisole. Glancing at Usagi, who was now whispering in Mamoru's ear and giggling, she smirked. "Well at least the day wasn't ruined for everyone."_

_Usagi stiffened and laughed slightly, her cheeks flushing pink like the color of her dress."Cheer up guys," Usagi said, Mamoru nodding._

"_We'll finish this mission before the end of the day and we'll reschedule our delicious graduation lunch for tomorrow. Maybe even throw a party?" Mamoru suggested._

"_That sounds fun," Ami commented while she typed on her mini-computer, it having picked up some areas in town with negative energy. She set it down and pushed some of her short blue locks behind her ear, smoothing her white dress and smiling at everyone. "I did find a few points with negative energy," she said, lowering her voice so that other people in the diner didn't hear. _

"_Where Ames?" Rei asked, flipping her long dark hair behind her shoulder and messing with the strap on the right side of her red tank top, retying the bow on it while smoothing down her black mini-skirt. _

"_Well I'm picking up at least six distinct points," Ami said, "five smaller ones and then one larger energy reading. I believe we should all check them out. The larger one could very well be the base.....but if the smaller readings are youma attacks brewing then we should probably check those out first."_

"_Are the points anywhere near each other?" asked Makoto. Ami shook her head. "They're opposite parts of town."_

"_I guess we're splitting up then," Minako commented. "I wish we had Luna and Artemis here to help us."_

"_Or the outers," Rei added, wondering why Pluto had chosen only them to come here but realizing that the outers were needed to protect Tokyo since they were away._

"_Well, the four of us can each head to one of the smaller points then," Ami said, tipping her head at the screen on her computer before continuing. "Usagi and Mamoru can go together to the last of the five smaller points. I guess then we can all keep in contact, before heading to what I'm positive is the main base together."_

"_Alright then, let's move," Usagi said energetically, as the group stood and exited the diner. _

_From the booth behind them, the five Gundam Pilots stood. _

"_What are they up to?" Duo asked. _

"_Each one of us can tail one of them. Hurry before we lose them," Heero said stoically as the five hurried from the diner. _

"I can't wait to find out. Tell me what you know!" Trowa demanded as the shadow creature continued to circle him in that infuriating way. It gave him a knowing smirk, before breaking out into laughter as it circled him.

"This is exactly why you don't know. You were always so blinded by the situation at hand, such as myself, that you couldn't stop for a moment and just think."

_Trowa followed Ami, leaving a decent distance between them. Heero had gone after the black-haired woman, Rei. Duo had chosen to follow the girl who had trampled him and her boyfriend, Usagi and Mamoru if he was correct, and Quatre had followed the brunette Makoto. Wufei had been forced to follow the bubbly blonde Minako. _

_Ami followed her computer, having just finished instructing each Senshi on exactly where the disturbances were so that they could investigate. _

_Trowa frowned. She was talking into her watch, although she had tried to make inconspicuous and she kept using the little computer. _

_Ami continued on her path, her destination being only a few blocks away. Her computer started to beep slightly as she neared the negative energy, and she was surprised to see it was a grocery store. It had a lot of customers, several people coming in. A large sign above the glass doors read "General Grocery."_

_She frowned. A sign that seemed to be handwritten hung next to the doors, saying "EVERYTHING IN STORE 75% OFF." She sighed now. This had their enemies written all over it. She should have expected so many innocent bystanders, although now she was hoping her friends were better off than her. _

_Entering the sliding glass doors, she pushed her way through the crowds trying to get grocery carts and walked through the isles. Her computer had stopped beeping since she was already in the proper location and it was no good to her now as it was offering her no more information. Putting it away, she watched the customers in the store load their carts to the brim and quickly move into the huge lines at cash, as though they were afraid the promotions would end soon. _

_The cashiers seemed normal, if a bit frazzled at the sheer amount of customers. Everything looked normal, although Ami knew that was never quite the case. _

_She turned from where she stood at the edge of the isle only to crash right into Trowa, whom had been trying to follow her and hadn't thought she would turn but rather continue ahead. _

_Cursing himself for his own mistake, he watched as she first looked on apologetically before a look of recognition flashed across her face. _

"_You again," she said, offering him a tight smile, "Trowa, right?" Was he following her?_

"_Right," he said smoothly, stepping back since they were standing so close to each other. "Sorry I bumped into you. Duo has a big appetite and right now he's craving those chips I was trying to grab."_

_Trowa ushered at the row of chips above her head and she nodded, not really caring for his explanation but deciding to hold him to it. "Well then, let me help you."_

_Before he could say anything she had grabbed the chips and placed them in his hands, pushing him towards the lines. "You might want to get in line; it looks like Duo's going to have to wait a long time with these crowds." _

_Mouth agape, Trowa turned back to where she had been standing only to see that she was gone. Damn it, where had she run off to? What was she up to?_

_Ami quickly distanced herself from Trowa, knowing him also being in the grocery was not that big a deal but unable to shake the feeling that he had followed her here. _

_Seeing two large metal doors with signs reading "Employees only," Ami took a quick glance around before entering. She was met with a burst of cold air and dismissed that as the attempt to keep the product in the back fresh, but it was ridiculously cold back here. _

_Also, it seemed like all of the employees were in the front, because it was deserted. She walked down the dark hall, turning to the right where a large storage area almost as big as the store itself was. There were several shelves, filled with product, ranging from a few food items to general groceries such as toilet paper and detergent. _

_It was still too dark and cold in the place for a storage area. Only one of the large lights in the room as on, the other five burned out. Another large metal door on the opposite end of the room read "freezer" and Ami paused to wonder why it was so cold in the main storage area when everything that needed to be frozen was in there. _

_Turning away from the freezer door, she gasped as she once again came face to face with Trowa. The question about whether or not he was following her was answered as she glared at him, her eyes narrowing in suspicion._

"_What are you doing in here?" He demanded, quickly taking in the room and how cold it was before returning his attention to her. _

"_That's none of your business, who do you think you are anyways?"_

"_I..." he paused a moment, eyes narrowing. "I'm in law enforcement. An employee saw you come back here and I told them I would take care of it."_

"_My apologies then," Ami lied, not believing a word he said. "I'll leave."_

"_Not so fast," he said. "You never answered my question. What are you doing back here?"_

"_Took a wrong turn," she said flippantly, blatantly ignoring him now as she thought she heard something from the back, either behind the back shelves or the freezer, she wasn't sure. _

_She took a few steps towards there, Trowa narrowing his eyes before he heard something as well._

_He also approached the freezers, but saw nothing. Ami frowned. She had been sure she had heard something...._

_The freezer door suddenly flew open, a huge gust of wind tearing through the room. _

"_What the-" Trowa began, only to be immediately silenced as the two were swept off of their feet and knocked harshly to the ground by an unseen force. _

_Ami groaned, her head pounding from where it hit the ground as she tried to get up, only to realize that Trowa was right on top of her. _

_He shook his head, placing his hands on the ground and attempting to get up. "Sorry," he muttered, his eyes catching hers since his face was only a few inches away. A light blush colored both of their cheeks as he quickly got to his knees. Ami, trying to suppress her blush, gave a quick retort. _

"_No problem, officer," she snapped, the last word in her statement sounding as rude as she had meant it. She mentally berated herself. Why was she acting so mean? This was so unlike her....._

_He shook his head, silent as he tried to figure out how he had been knocked to the ground. Glancing down at Ami, he offered her his hand. She didn't take it, standing on her own as she walked towards the freezers once more. _

"_Hold it," he said. "It's not safe to go there."_

_Ami ignored him, and he pursued her. _

"_I'll arrest you," he warned. _

"_Are you going to show me a fake badge before you cuff me? Why are you following me?"_

_Trowa frowned deeply. "I'm not. I told you that I-"_

"_Well I didn't believe you. What don't you want me to find back here?" Ami demanded, curious as to whether he or not he might be with the enemy. _

_She was suspicious of him now?_

"_I've never been back here, how am I supposed to know," he retorted, never speaking this much with someone who was practically a stranger and also never losing his cool like he was now. What was this girl doing to him?_

"_Sure," Ami said, peering inside the freezer. There was nothing here...._

_Loud screams filled the air and the two of them turned towards the sound, coming from the doorway leading to the rest of the store. _

_They took off towards the sound, the two of them moving at the same pace as they looked through the glass windows on the metal doors. _

_There were about five youma from where they could see, knocking over shelves and catching people, draining them of their energy. _

"_What the hell are those things?" Trowa asked, eyes widening. Ami looked at him to try and verify whether or not she felt he was telling the truth. _

_Trowa frowned. He had been sent to this colony to investigate dangerous cult leaders, not monsters. _

_More screams filled the air and Ami knew she had to act now. Before she could run from Trowa and investigate, she noticed that he had a gun in hand and had moved through the doors, beginning to shoot at the monsters that were in front of the doors. The bullets wounded one of them and it dropped a woman whose energy it was draining and turned its attention to him, flying straight at him. _

_Trowa fired at it as it approached, but it didn't relent, grabbing him as it flew back through the doors he had come from and pinning him to the ground. A smile spread across its ugly face as it began to drain his energy, an ugly purple light surrounding him. _

"_Shine Aqua Illusion!"_

_The youma was destroyed with a scream, and Trowa felt his energy return to him as he got off of the ground and turned to look for who had saved him, although he wasn't too sure how. All he saw was a flash of blue hair before whoever it was dashed out the doorway and into the store. Ami had blue hair, didn't she? Anyways, she had just been standing where that person was, so whoever it was had to be Ami. _

_Trowa pursued the person, watching as she ran to the front of the store where the most commotion was. As he approached, he stopped. There was a woman he didn't recognize shooting ice from her hands at one of the creatures terrorizing people at the front of the store. He blinked. He knew it had to be Ami, because she had been standing where the woman who had saved him was, by the storage doors. It didn't look like Ami though....._

_His head suddenly began to pound and when he glanced back up he realized that the woman fighting the monsters was Ami, in a different outfit. How had he not recognized her before? Some kind of magic? Normally he would have laughed at that, but he was watching her fight monsters while shooting ice and water from her hands, so....._

_Not missing a beat, he looked to where customers had crowded the glass doors of the grocery store. The doors seemed to be jammed shut, and they struggled to escape the place. _

_Rushing over there, he fought through the crowds and shot at the glass doors, watching with a nod as they cracked and then shattered. People spilled through, fear overtaking them as they ran from the store. _

_With the remaining conscious victims gone, the monsters focused on Ami. _

_She stepped away from them, taking out two more of the four remaining youma with one of her most powerful attacks. Without pause, the other two youma attacked, throwing some kind of an electrifying web at her. Her screams echoed through the store as Trowa rushed back to where he had seen her standing, firing at the two remaining youma. The two youma snarled, moving to attack him. _

"_Mercury Ice Storm!" _

_The youma were disintegrated a couple of feet from him. Trowa approached Ami, who was now on her feet and looking a bit weary. _

"_Ami?"_

"_Huh?" She said, frowning deeply. He hadn't seen her transform- he couldn't have; he was outside the doors shooting the youma. _

"_Ami," he repeated, and she shook her head. _

"_I don't know who you're talking about," she said, flustered as she waved her hands apologetically. _

"_Yes you do," he insisted, stepping closer to her. "We were just arguing in the storage area. I don't know how the hell you just did what you did, but it's you."_

"_It's not. I'm Sailor Mercury."_

_Trowa stared at her critically. "I know it's you."_

"_It can't be." _

"_You're infuriating beyond belief," Trowa stated, trying to keep his cool as he stared her down. _

_Much to his shock, rather than respond Ami took off running, out the shattered glass doors and into the parking lot. _

_Damn it, this was not his day! Trowa took off after her, wary that he was making idiotic mistakes and acting very much unlike himself. The others would get pissed knowing he had lost his target. _

_Mercury ran as fast as she could, knowing Trowa was behind her. What was up with him? He had helped her, so he couldn't be the enemy.....unless it was all a trick. How the hell had he seen through her disguise? Okay, so Ami was standing behind the door in the storage room one moment and then Sailor Mercury was there the next, but usually her disguise power stopped people from putting these very simple facts together. _

"_Girls," Mercury said in her communicator. "Are you all alright?"_

"_We're all fine Merc, everyone just called me and told me they're already headed for the main place with the big negative energy reading," Sailor Moon told her, and she could hear Tuxedo Mask saying something from next to her. "Actually, I think the other Senshi are already there. We're coming up to the building too.....my God its city hall."_

"_Alright," Mercury said, glancing behind her shoulder at Trowa, who was fast approaching. "I warn you, I've got company."_

"_What a coincidence," Sailor Moon said somewhat dryly from her communicator as the two disconnected from each other. _

_Were Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask also being pursued by one of Trowa's friends? Were the others? Mercury didn't have time to ponder the thought as Trowa caught up to her, tackling her to the ground. _

_Mercury tried to kick him off of her and he refused to let up, shouting. "Hold it!" She paused a moment and he allowed her to sit up and breathe a moment, although he didn't release her wrist. _

"_Why the hell did you run from me back there? What are you hiding? While we're on the subject, how the hell can you shoot ice from your hands and what were those monsters back there? What exactly are you and your friends up to?"_

_Mercury stared at Trowa a moment, frowning. Why was he following her? 'Because he doesn't trust me,' she realized. _

"_Well, what are you and your friends up to then?" She asked, throwing the question back at him. "You followed me for a reason."_

_He opened his mouth to respond and closed it again, cursing as he once again either said too much or lost his words around her. _

"_You answer me first," he said, staring at her intently. She forced back a blush, not used to having anyone stare at her like that. Her second best option next to blushing furiously was all too clear. As Trowa only had a hold of her wrist while the two sat on the floor, Mercury kicked him in the chest as hard as she possibly could, knocking him off of her. He took only a moment to regain his breath but it was all Mercury needed as she pushed herself off the ground and took off running. Trowa angrily lunged after her, only a foot behind her as she seemed to slow down. He watched as she stared intently at city hall and began approaching it. _

"_Where do you think you're going?" He demanded, pursuing her. It was now just half past nine. City hall was closed and the employees had gone home. _

"_Leave," Mercury demanded, heading up the steps towards the doors of the large building. _

"_Don't bet on that," he said as he followed her up the steps. Mercury tried to reach her friends on her communicator and received only static. She could feel the negative vibes radiating off the building and she frowned. _

_She reached for the door and he scoffed. _

"_Obviously it's locked."_

_She opened the door with ease and he once again cursed God, who seemingly had it out for him as not a single thing he said today had been correct. _

"_Well then you're trespassing," he stated, grabbing her arm. "You're not going in. You're under arrest."_

_She raised an eyebrow in response and Trowa took a deep breath to keep his cool. _

_Pulling out his Preventers badge, he showed it to her and spoke. _

'_I'm serious, no more games. You are under arrest. If you don't answer the remainder of my questions, I'm arresting your friends too."_

"_Alright rent-a-cop," she said, pulling her arm free. Trowa bit back a growl, pulling out his gun and ushering with it. _

"_Enough. I am a Preventer and I'm placing you under arrest."_

_Ami groaned. This idiot was wasting her time, her friends were probably in danger .Curiosity got the best of her though and she met his gaze, surprising him that she was not afraid of his gun. What surprised him more was the general curiosity in her gaze, as though was anticipating learning something new. The look was different from the one she had given him that entire afternoon. It was softer.....he liked it._

"_What's a Preventer?"_

_Her question shocked him more than everything previous as he stared at her incredulously. _

"_Are you.....being honest with me?"_

"_Yes," she said, true innocence lacing her voice at her response. _

"_You must know what the Preventers are. Huge government organization, deal with post-war problems and general security......" He trailed off when no recognition flashed across her face. _

_Seeing how shocking it was that she didn't know, Ami was quick to enter the dark doors of city hall and leave Trowa standing there a moment before he followed her. _

"_I said you were under arrest," he reminded, "Ami."_

_The lights in the main hall suddenly came on and she tensed. "Call me Mercury."_

"_I'll call you by your name."_

_She spun around to face him, general concern showing on her face. "When I look like this, my name is Mercury. You have to get out of here, it's not safe. There will be more of those monsters here." She suddenly looked to the right intently, having heard something. Trowa took the opportunity to finally see why the outfit was so important with her name. He stared down at her outfit, taking a good look for the first time and wondering how the hell he hadn't noticed it before. It was a tight fitting white bodice with a blue sailor collar, a light blue bow in the center of her chest although it did nothing to hide her shapely figure as his eyes traveled down, past her slender waist and to her hips, covered in a mini-skirt which was really hardly a skirt, and moving to her thin and yet well toned legs. Blue boots completed the outfit, and he glanced back up at the tiara on her forehead, which had a blue gem in the center. Around her neck was a blue choker with a star on it. _

_His glance had been only a couple of seconds and he was sure that if Mercury had seen him looking, she thought he was just looking at the outfit although he still felt like scum. _

_Mercury turned to meet his gaze just as the front door slammed shut. Running past him, she tugged at the heavy wood door and gasped. _

"_We're locked in. Oh my God, you're locked in here!"_

_Trowa approached, tugging at the door as well and frowning. _

"_I told you," Mercury said, frowning now as she began to get worried. "This is bad."_

_Pulling out her mini-computer, she double clicked her earring. A blue visor came over her eyes and Trowa frowned and glanced over at her just as the lights went out. He could now here Mercury typing, but she soon sighed. _

"_I can't get any readings in here. Let's just go, my friends are in here somewhere. Oh, and if your friends are anything like you, they probably are too."_

"_That's true," he agreed, not too sure on what was happening but deciding to just go with the flow and stop trying to arrest her, for now anyways. _

_The two walked down the dark hallway, keeping near each other so as not to lose one another in the dark. A loud crash sounded from a distance, and they took off running towards the sound._

".....just think," Trowa repeated after the shadow creature. It smirked and nodded. Ami rolled in his arms and he glanced down at her, needing answers. She began to open her eyes, blinking slightly.

"Trowa......I saw some of..." she trailed off as her head began to pound. Her eyes rolled to the back of head and she fell back into his already awaiting arms.

"She didn't finish seeing what she was supposed to see yet," the creature said matter-of-factly.

"What was she supposed to see?" Trowa asked.

"Well didn't you ever wonder?" It asked.

"Wonder what? How we got here?" Trowa questioned. "Of course we did."

"Not that," the creature said, beginning to chuckle. "Didn't you ever wonder....."

_Sailor Mercury and Trowa tore up the steps of the building, away from a youma that was in pursuit of them. The layout of city hall had changed entirely apparently, as doors would become walls and as the two got to the top of the stairs and screamed as they began to plummet to the basement, apparently the floor could disappear as well. _

_The two struggled to get off of the ground, in pain but alright. _

"_You really weren't joking huh?" Trowa asked, helping her stand as the two glanced around the darkened basement. It was very big and dark, although the two knew that they weren't alone. _

"_No," she said, allowing herself a small smile as they tried to see what was in the room. The two cautiously approached the center of the room, jumping backwards as the lights in the room came on, making it look like a large warehouse. _

"_Mercury!" A voice shouted. The two turned to see Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask, and Duo come running into the room in a much more graceful fashion than she and Trowa had. _

_Trowa smirked. _

"_Of course you followed her too, Tro-man," Duo joked, looking around the room. "Cult my ass. This is way beyond what we expected. Where is everyone else? Have you seen anyone....and can you believe their outfits?" _

_Tuxedo Mask punched Duo on the shoulder in warning and Sailor Moon blushed. Mercury ignored the three, her attention on the other side of the large basement. It was dark in there and as of yet unlit. She thought she heard....was it whimpers? _

"_You have good ears Mercury," a voice drawled, belonging to a woman who stepped out from the dark area of the room. The woman had long blonde hair, cascading in waves over her shoulders. She gazed at the five of them calculatingly, her steely grey eyes roaming over the group. She wore, quite unlike many of their other enemies, the robes of a priestess. However, the robes colours were black and grey, and she uncrossed her arms and spread them wide. _

"_Welcome."_

_The last section of lights came on, revealing their remaining friends, all of who were tied up and gagged, hence the whimpers. _

_Sailor Venus and Wufei were tied together, and it looked like large pieces of duct tape were across their mouths. Both seemed injured but it wasn't obvious in the bad lighting how bad it was. Next to them were Sailor Jupiter and Quatre, similarly bound and tied back to back. Lastly were Sailor Mars and Heero, conscious but lying down on the ground and bound that way. _

_Sailor Moon stepped forwards angrily and Tuxedo Mask threw up his arm to stop her. She nodded and stepped back._

"_Your friends were here kind of early," the woman said plainly, watching them closely. "They were difficult to take down though, I'll give them that much. I understand that the government thinks we're a cult?" She directed her question at Trowa and Duo, tipping her head back and beginning to laugh. "Hardly, although we did have to act like a cult in order to get some minions from this world under our cooperation." _

_She ushered at her robes, and smirked. "You preach salvation to people, and no matter how ridiculous what you say sounds, they come running. They will give you anything to be saved. Property, money, ....their energy. Well...they didn't know about that part until our final ceremony, but by that time it was too late. I'm assuming the government was looking into those one hundred and fifty missing people?"_

_Trowa and Duo nodded, gazing at her calculatingly. She was clearly not someone to be messed with although it seemed like the force behind her were her monsters. _

"_Then, after we completely drained those people and realized we still didn't have enough for our master plan, I was forced to send youma out into the city to get me more. That is- until you all got in the way."_

"_Master plan? Who are you?" Sailor Moon asked. _

"_Call me the goddess of the after life. That's what all of my minions called me until we took care of them a few days ago and you are no better than my loyal followers. As for my master plan, it's simple. Domination. I heard that you Senshi protect the other dimension, so I went to a lot of trouble to come here and yet you still pursued me. You have to understand that I am a little inconvenienced."_

"_You're no goddess, you're a devil in disguise," Sailor Moon shouted. _

_Mercury grabbed Sailor Moon's elbow, warning her to calm down. All they needed was to get tied up like the rest of their friends. _

_The woman simply laughed. "I suppose you'll just have to fight me then. I've been feeling bored lately...so you won't just be fighting my youma, you'll be fighting me as well."_

_Several youma appeared in the room and immediately charged at them. They weren't her most powerful bunch, immediately being taken down by attacks or even bullets from Trowa and Duo. _

_When half of her youma were destroyed, the self-proclaimed goddess got involved, shooting large energy attacks from her hands at all of them. _

_Mercury rolled out of the way of one of them, turning and destroying a youma behind her with a small attack. She heard bullets from Trowa's gun quickly taking out or delaying youma from next to her. The woman attacked again from above, sending a large blast of energy towards Trowa. Mercury ran and shoved him out of the way as both of them rolled several feet, narrowly missing the attack. _

"_Thanks," he muttered, helping her stand. "I owe you one."_

_Duo was knocked in the chest with a lot of force by a youma and collapsed to the ground, conscious but unable to get up. _

_About six youma lunged at Tuxedo Mask and knocked him to the ground, attacking him fiercely. _

"_Tuxedo Mask!" Sailor Moon screamed, trying to fight off a youma she was dealing with to go help him. _

_Mercury saw the woman begin to aim at Sailor Moon before Sailor Moon was at all aware of it. _

"_Sailor Moon!"_

"Didn't I ever wonder what?" Trowa asked the Shadow creature as it continued to circle him in that infuriating way.

"Wonder why everything that happened to you here injured you massively," it said with a shrug. Trowa's eyebrows creased in confusion. Why? Clearly, he and Ami weren't being extra careful this last week, but what did that mean?

Ami gasped, her eyes flying open and meeting Trowa's. They were slightly glassy, and Trowa had to know what she had found out.

"Ami, what did you see?" He asked, his voice urgent. She stared at him, almost as though she was looking right through him.

"Didn't you ever wonder, I mean, how you sustained those injuries on your bodies," the creature said, circling them as it laughed. Trowa struggled to keep his temper down, the creature's taunts too much for him to handle as he tried to get the answer from Ami. His head was spinning and he needed answers now.

"Shut up!" He shouted at the creature, focusing on Ami. "Ami," he shook her shoulders as her eyes started going blank. "Ami! What happened to us? How did we get here? Ami!"

Her eyes focused on his instantly, the words falling softly from her lips but holding more meaning to him than he would have ever guessed.

"We died."

The sound of his heart, beating loudly in his chest overtook his senses for a moment before he snapped back.

"What?" He asked, shock tearing through him as his grip on her shoulders slackened. He was sure his eyes were wide and he could hear the creature laughing as it continued to circle him, beginning to throw Trowa into a maddening rage.

"No!"

"We died," Ami repeated firmly, grabbing the sides of his face and forcing him to look at her. "Trowa, we died. A week ago....we died."

"Ami no!" He shouted. He would know if he was dead. He felt so alive. He was inured. He needed food. He needed water. He was alive.

Ami understood his paranoia. She knew the cold feeling of death and this wasn't it. The truth however, was suddenly all too clear.

"Trowa, we died!"

He continued to shake his head even as the feeling of the truth behind her words began to creep into his heart. How was this possible?

Suddenly Ami remembered what she had been thinking while they were walking in the labyrinth that day. "Bound to walk forever with no destination....we were lost. We're lost, Trowa, our souls are lost. We had to remember what happened to us. We had to remember!"

Trowa suddenly looked up, the creature's laughter meaningless to him as he saw what had happened to them one week prior. How had he forgotten? The clarity of the truth was unbelievable......

"_Sailor Moon!" Sailor Mercury screamed, trying to get her attention. Sailor Moon didn't hear her. She began to run away from where Trowa stood, at Sailor Moon. _

"_Sailor Moon! Sailor Moon! Usagi!"_

_Trowa saw where Mercury was running and turned pale. He tried to shoot at the self-proclaimed goddess who was attacking Sailor Moon, but his bullets were ineffective. What was Sailor Mercury trying to do? His legs began to move him forwards before his mind registered what he was doing. _

"_Ami stop!"_

_Sailor Mercury could feel the heat from the unbelievably large blast as she neared Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon, still blissfully unaware, was trying to fend off a youma that was on top of her while she worried about Tuxedo Mask's situation. _

"_Princess!" Mercury screamed one last time. _

_She reached Sailor Moon just as the blast was about to connect. Trowa, on Mercury's heels, was too late to move her safely out of the way. The blast tore through him and Sailor Mercury simultaneously, burning into them so deep that it left a sizeable hole in their chests._

_Sailor Moon turned, finally knocking the attacking youma off of her, and began to scream. Tuxedo Mask finished off the last of the attacking youma as he got to his feet, beaten but in total shock. _

_The fighting seemed to come to a halt as the room became silent save for her cries. _

_Mercury reached a shaking hand to her profusely bleeding chest, feeling the blood leaking out of her faster than she could ever have imagined. Gasping, she met Trowa's gaze as he sank to the floor with her. _

"_Why d-did you do that?" She managed to gasp out. He never tore her eyes away from her, managing a shaky smile even though his blood was seeping through his wound painfully. _

"_I owed you one, remember? That a-and I definitely thought I was faster than that....."_

_Their eyes became lifeless as Sailor Moon continued to scream. Mercury's transformation faded, leaving Ami and Trowa lying in a pool of blood. _

_From Sailor Moon's screams, the silver crystal activated, flying from Sailor Moon's brooch. The light hit Ami and Trowa's prone figures, and the attacking woman began to scream._

"_What are you doing? Are you trying to bring them back? I won't allow it!"_

_The woman released a black beam of her own, also hitting their bodies. _

"_Now their souls are lost wandering time Sailor Moon. I am sending my minions after them to stop them from remembering what happened to them. If they remember, only then can they return to you!"_

"_No," Sailor Moon said, collapsing to her knees as tears wet her face. "Stop it!"_

"_Don't worry," the woman said coldly. "If they remember, they will be coming back here in a few moments. Time passes differently when you're dead, especially with this spell I just cast. Either they come back within a few more moments or they are dead forever scout."_

"We have to go back," Trowa murmured as the initial shock of their situation set in.

"You're probably too late," the shadow creature said cruelly. "You were on a time limit that was set for under seven days. If you've breached it by even a second you won't return to the place you died."

Trowa spun around only to see that Ami was fading away from next to him.

"Ami! Ami what's going on?"

Glancing down at his own hands, he realized he too was fading......

Ami took a deep breath, feeling the air enter and leave her lungs. She felt........alive. More alive then she had ever felt before, or perhaps it was disbelief. Placing her hands on the wet floor, wet from the blood she had soiled it with seven days prior, or rather in this timeline, a few moments before, she attempted to stand.

Her white dress was soaked in the blood she had fallen in although she knew that she was no longer wounded.

From next to her, Trowa had discovered the same thing. The two found each others hands, well aware that the room was deadly silent as they helped each other stand.

A couple of feet from them, Sailor Moon sat looking stunned. Tears covered her face and she looked at the two of them in disbelief. From behind her, Tuxedo Mask gripped her shoulder. Duo stared at them wide eyed. Their bound and captured friends on the other end of the room had all gone deathly silent, tears of relief trailing down a few of the Senshi's faces. Their blonde enemy had her hands clenched tightly at her side.

"How did you remember?" She demanded. "How did you remember in time? I made sure my minions followed you."

"They did," Ami said, still in disbelief at what has happening as she watched the woman.

"I made sure you suffered," the woman stated coldly, her steely grey eyes boring holes into them.

"We did," Trowa said coolly, staring right back at the women. Again, her hands clenched by her side in fury.

"You were lucky this time Sailor Moon," the woman stated, watching the group. "I will however be ready for a rematch very soon. I will make sure that you don't bring anyone back then," she said, disappearing from the room with a snap of her fingers.

Immediately, the bonds holding their friends on the other side of the room disappeared. They stood quickly, removing the duct tape from their mouths and running over.

It was in that instant that Ami and Trowa were attacked by their friends individually, separated and questioned thoroughly although they were slightly dazed from it all.

"Ami I can't believe you jumped in front of me like that," Sailor Moon said for the hundredth time, continuing to sob as she hugged the life right back out of her.

"We're just glad you're alright Ami," Sailor Venus said, Mars and Jupiter voicing agreement while Tuxedo Mask tried to pull Sailor Moon off of her.

"Tro-man, you are unbelievable! You died, and then like a minute later you just stood up! I never thought I'd see anything like that!" Duo exclaimed as his friends surrounded him. "How long were you two wandering time, or whatever that woman said?"

"A week," Trowa said.

"A week? You experienced an entire week while it had been less than a minute here?" Heero asked, looking shocked. Trowa nodded. Wufei stared at Trowa a moment, nodding.

"You wandered through time?"

"Yes," Trowa said, responding to Wufei's question. Wufei nodded, still trying to come to terms with everything that had happened that day.

Quatre watched Trowa, whose eyes continued to flicker towards the blue-haired girl he had been sent to follow that day, Ami. The two had spent an entire week together, so it was natural that they would be friends, but......Quatre was pretty sure he saw something else in Trowa's eyes as he stared at her.

The groups moved towards each other, the Senshi detransforming as they all began to chatter about that woman's threat of returning to fight with them. Quatre invited all of them to stay at his estate on L2 for the night while they rested and finally got to talk about everythign that had happened, as all but Ami and Trowa only knew each other from that day.

Ami was for the moment uninterested, the situation still surreal to her as she couldn't believe she was finally out of that wretched place. One look at Trowa told her he felt the same as he glanced around the room, just trying to get his bearings. Catching her eyes, a small smile tugged on the corner of his lips. She returned it, her feet moving her forwards and into his arms before she told herself not to act like this in front of the girls, who were sure to make a big deal out of it later.

Trowa hugged her tightly, for the moment just happy to be home.

* * *

How was it? I'll be updating soon hopefully, but PLEASE review because I badly need feedback for this chapter!


	8. The Finale Part 1

Last Time:

_The groups moved towards each other, the Senshi de-transforming as they all began to chatter about that woman's threat of returning to fight with them._

_Ami was for the moment uninterested, the situation still surreal to her as she couldn't believe she was finally out of that wretched place. One look at Trowa told her he felt the same as he breathed deeply, just trying to get his bearings. Catching her eyes, a small smile tugged on the corner of his lips. She returned it, her feet moving her forwards and into his arms before she told herself not to act like this in front of the girls, who were sure to make a big deal out of it later._

_Trowa hugged her tightly, for the moment just happy to be home._

* * *

The Finale Part 1

The group was all equally exhausted as they arrived at Quatre's estate, Trowa and Ami more so as they felt like they had been gone an entire week. The estate had fortunately only been about a half hours walk from city hall.

As they walked up the driveway, Quatre was in the front explaining to the group how old the estate was, and that his family was originally from L2.

Ami was inattentive for the most part, glancing over at Trowa every few minutes but mostly staring straight forwards. When they beat this enemy.....that meant that she would have to go home, right? Then she would never see him again, and the thought caused a dull ache in her chest.

"Ami!"

She glanced to her left and saw Minako staring at her calculatingly.

"I called your name a few times. You never space out girl, what's wrong?"

"Oh," Ami said, trying to think of something to say. "I'm just excited to get out of this bloody dress."

"I believe it," Makoto said from behind her, going back to her conversation with Mamoru as the group approached the front door. Minako stared at her a moment longer, glancing at Trowa and back at Ami before a slow smile began to spread across her face.

Ami, recognizing the grin instantly, was quick to shuffle through the door that one of Quatre's maids had opened and avoid her.

"I'll show you all to your rooms and see if we can get you all a change of clothes," he said, "I'm sure you're all tired so we'll wait to talk until tomorrow."

A couple of maids followed Quatre upstairs as the group trudged up behind him, all being given rooms to share immediately while he searched for his family's old clothes to get them all sleeping clothes and clothing for the next day.

"I'll go help you Quatre," Makoto offered, heading up to the third floor with him so they could get some clothes.

Ami exited the room she had been given to share with Rei, desperate for a shower and to get out of the bloody dress but waiting for some clean clothes first.

Rei was talking quietly with Heero by the wall, Minako was following Wufei up and down the stairs, Duo was hassling Usagi and Mamoru, and Makoto and Quatre were grabbing everyone clothes.

Where was Trowa? She turned and jumped when Trowa's hand grabbed her shoulder.

"What's with you?" He asked, smirking at her unease.

"Oh nothing, just jumpy I guess," she explained with a smile, unable to fight how happy she was whenever he was around, even at the simplest of words.

"Hey all, we got the clothes!" Makoto hollered from the stairs with Quatre, both coming down and looking pleased with themselves.

"Great," Trowa said from behind her. "I need a shower and clean clothes."

"Then a nice warm bed," Ami finished somewhat dreamily. "It'll sure beat sleeping on the floor."

Before any of their friends could call out to them Trowa leaned down and muttered in her ear, his breath tickling her. "I believe you slept on my lap half of the days. You sure a bed beats that?"

She blushed, Trowa responding to Quatre's shout for him and moving past her towards the group, ushering for her to follow.

* * *

Ami stepped out of the shower, feeling like a different person after that much needed hot shower. Spotting the change of clothes or rather sleep wear that Makoto had brought down for her, she felt her fist tighten when she saw that it was a tiny pair of shorts and little camisole.

'Makoto,' she thought, rolling her eyes as she slipped them on. It didn't really matter; she was just sharing the room with Rei.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she was not too surprised to see Usagi, Minako, Makoto, and Rei all sitting on Rei's bed awaiting her patiently. All had showered and put on their sleepwear, and unfortunately all four of them were smiling from ear to ear.

"Guys, I really missed you," Ami said casually as she approached the bed, sitting across from the four of them on her own bed. "Don't ruin it."

"Ami Ami Ami, I don't know what you're talking about," Minako said, flicking her hair of her shoulder and rolling her eyes as she watched her.

Usagi giggled slightly, looking like she was just dying to say something. Rei glared at Usagi, and she stiffened and smiled sheepishly at her. Makoto rolled her eyes at Usagi and Rei, glancing at Minako and sighing.

"Fine, since the other three want to play games then I'll just be forwards about it. What's going on between you and Trowa?" Makoto asked bluntly.

Ami glared at her, glancing over to make sure the door was closed.

"Nothing, quiet down," she said as Usagi and Minako began to giggle, Rei's smile growing wider.

"Don't worry Ami, Mamoru's room is next door and he knows we're in here grilling you. Spill," Minako said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ami said calmly, sitting down and tugging at her shorts, which felt like they were leaving her behind exposed. "Mako these are too short."

Makoto laughed. "I guess some things never change."

"Seriously Ames, what is up with you two," Usagi said, Rei nodding energetically and adding "Did he kiss you? He must have done that, the guy seems crazy about you!"

"I...he-," Ami blushed, trying to cover it quickly as Minako let out an ear shattering scream of excitement.

The remaining occupants of the house were standing in the doorway of the room a split second later, half of them out of breath and having dropped what they were doing to come running in fear. Mamoru pushed passed the Pilots, looking into the room and beginning to laugh as he had been pretty sure that Minako was just excited about something.

"Why...are you laughing," Wufei panted, looking annoyed. "What the hell happened? We thought someone was attacked or something!"

"Yes, is everyone alright," Quatre asked, surveying the women sitting in the room, who were laughing.

Trowa stepped into the room as well, staring at all of the girls and allowing his eyes to rest on Ami, not letting his eyes linger on her sleepwear appreciatively for too long lest her friends and his all notice. He was exhausted but the scream had sent fear ripping through him and he was currently just trying to recover.

Ami was blushing as she glared at Minako, who leapt on her from Rei's bed and tackled her to the floor, beginning to mutter in her ear something as she laughed. Ami laughed but fought her off, Makoto also standing to help Ami up and get the psychopath Minako Aino off of her.

"Dude, that's hot," Duo commented, watching the scene before him. All of the men in the room turned to glare at him.

Rei quieted her own laughter down, rolling her eyes as Makoto tried to pull Minako off of Ami. Usagi was currently muttering something in Mamoru's ear, who was slowly beginning to grin although no one knew what she was saying. Ami sighed, finally getting to her feet and resisting pulling down her scandalous shorts as she glared at Minako.

"Mina!"

Minako continued to laugh, Makoto clamping her hand down on her mouth.

Rei turned back to the baffled pilots at the door, sighing. "I'm so sorry guys. Mina is an idiot."

"I resent that!" Minako said, her voice muffled by Makoto's hand. Heero stared between Rei and the other girls in bewilderment, not used to having so many screaming females around the house. Rei gave him a small apologetic smile and he nodded thoughtfully.

"No one minds ladies," Duo said gallantly, stepping into the room. "We appreciate your sleepwear almost as much as we appreciate your little Senshi outfits!"

Five male hands reached out to smack Duo, those being Mamoru, Heero, Wufei, Trowa, and Quatre.

"Sheesh, I get it!" Duo hollered, taking off down the hall running.

"Well," Quatre said with a sigh, having calmed down. "Goodnight then ladies." He smiled at Makoto and exited the room.

Mamoru kissed Usagi and said goodnight to the other girls, also exiting the room. Wufei, still somewhat sour, waved goodnight to everyone and allowed his eyes to linger on the still giggling Minako a moment before shaking his head slightly and departing.

Heero waved at Rei and exited the room as Trowa glanced back at Ami and smiled, also saying goodnight to everyone.

Ami stared after him a moment, frowning slightly and turning back to face the other girls. Rei frowned at Ami's demeanour towards Trowa. Why did Ami suddenly look so sad?

"What was it like in the time gates?" Rei asked Ami, sparing her from further questioning.

"It was....... pretty awful actually," Ami said. "We did experience a lot of historical events, but nothing good. That and when we walked for hours, which we did every day, we were usually walking through a blizzard....or once we walked through a desert. We.....got attacked a lot. The fact that our clothing was so different from the times we were in didn't help that I guess. Come to think of it, the injuries that we sustained there were too much on our bodies. It's no wonder we didn't die- we were already dead. It just felt so real...."

* * *

The next morning, everyone in the house was on the move. Quatre was downstairs, seeing that the cook made enough breakfast for everyone.

Ami headed to Usagi, Minako, and Makoto's room to get some extra towels for herself and Rei. Before she entered, Trowa passed by her. She stiffened. She had thought she was in the clear sneaking by in her scandalous pyjamas.

He smiled warmly. "Good morning," he said, "How did you sleep?"

"Oh..... great. You?"

"Good," he said, tipping his head at her odd behavior. In truth Ami had spent a little time before she fell asleep the night before thinking about Trowa. They were after all from two different dimensions, and it was likely she would be back in her dimension by the next morning or even that evening, they just had to wait for Pluto. Her thoughts had led her to realize just how attached she had become to Trowa that week and it scared her. She was already going to be crushed when she left, so wasn't it better to just cool it a bit and not mess with both of their feelings?

"I....I have to go.....and change....." her words lingered in the air as she hurried into the girls room to get the towels, feeling more anxious as she could feel his eyes on her.

Rei washed up and got ready, hearing Minako, Usagi, and Minako call out to them that they were heading downstairs. Mamoru waved as he headed down as well, Wufei and Duo at his heels. Heero exited his room a bit later and Ami saw him heading downstairs as she shut the door, changing her clothes. Frowning, she realized that Rei was slipping on a pair of jeans and a navy camisole. Quatre had mentioned that he had many sisters, although Ami wasn't sure just how many.

Spotting the jeans and white tank top, Ami frowned. The jeans looked low and she had a sneaking suspicion that Minako was somehow involved.

Glancing over at Rei, who was smirking, she was quick to realize it wasn't just Minako. Having nothing else to wear and not wanting to complain and make Rei outright smile, Ami slipped on the clothes as she and Rei headed downstairs.

She followed Rei down the hall, gasping as she was suddenly grabbed as she passed the closet.

Rei glanced behind her. Hadn't Ami just been there? She shrugged. Maybe she had run off to grab something. Smirking, she thought perhaps she had even run off to change.

Ami fought whoever held their hand over her mouth, sighing when they released her and she saw that it was Trowa.

"What are you doing?" She whispered, glaring. "The girls would just love catching us in a closet!"

"What you're doing is the more interesting question," he said calmly, staring right into her eyes so she couldn't evade him. "What's with you today?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ami responded, not tearing her gaze from his.

"You do," he said softly, and she shrank from his gaze, lowering her head.

"Ami," he said grabbing her chin. "What's wrong?"

"I told you, nothing's wrong," she insisted, pulling back.

"Ami stop lying! What's wrong with you?" He demanded. She was acting so strangely...and she was so reluctant to speak with him. Seeing her eyes narrow, he knew she was about to respond truthfully.

"What's wrong is that I'll probably be gone in less than a day. Don't you think what we're doing is a little careless? Let's just cool things down....be friends. It'll make it easier," she promised. Trowa frowned at her.

They could hear their friends calling them for breakfast. Duo was hollering to Usagi down the hall that he was looking for Ami and Trowa. The closet door suddenly opened up and they saw Duo staring in at them, looking somewhat stunned. They stared back somewhat angrily, so he shut the door quickly and rushed off, telling Usagi he hadn't found them.

Trowa turned back to Ami, who was blushing slightly.

"You're wrong Ami," he said.

"No I'm not," she said.

"Ami," he said with a sigh. "If it's really our last day together, don't you think we should make the most of it? Anyways, if you were able to come here, doesn't that mean that we could see each other again?"

"It doesn't work like that," Ami insisted. "There are implications and I don't know anything abou-"

His lips were against hers a moment later, silencing her. Pulling away, he stared at her a moment before speaking. "I know we only just met a week ago.....but I have very strong feelings for you and I won't pretend that they're not there."

Ami's jaw dropped. "You- you can't." She said, backing further from him.

"Is it so bad that I do?" He countered, stepping closer and grabbing her arm.

The closet opened once more. Minako stood in the door, confusion being replaced by a sly grin.

"Did you find them Mina," Makoto called from down the hall. "No!" she hollered loudly, slamming the closet door and bouncing off.

Trowa turned back to Ami, expecting her to be blushing at Minako's antics. She was instead staring at him. "You sure you're not just feeling this because of what we've been through?" She asked seriously. "We have been through a strange experience and naturally it's exciting, but when the excitement wears off........ it'll just be me."

Trowa pondered what she had said a moment, catching her insecurity within the statement but also thinking about the point. He chose his words carefully, the answer always having been clear for him.

"Ami," he said. "I hope we never have to go through an experience like last week again. I said I have feelings for _you_."

She paused, staring at him carefully and if he knew her at all, picking apart his statement in her head before finding her words.

"Good," Ami finally said, the words slipping from her mouth more naturally than anything she had ever said. "I don't know what I'm feeling right now.....but I know I'm going to have a hard time leaving tomorrow and.......and I'm not sure what I'm going to do without you."

Trowa's lips were crushing hers not a moment after, pushing her back against the wall of the closet. Ami was quick to deepen the kiss, stepping forwards and grabbing a hold of his shoulders as his arms wrapped around her waist.

A scream from the other room tore the two apart as Trowa pushed open the closet door. The two of them rushed into the hallway and followed the commotion as they saw their friends all gathered around the doorway of the dining room. The table was already prepared with breakfast, a few maids glancing up with confusion as they finished setting it.

Ami and Trowa joined the group, realizing that Rei was passed out and everyone was checking on her. Duo glanced over at the two of them and smirked but said nothing, Minako also winking but remaining silent as the situation at hand was more important.

Suddenly Rei's eyes flew open with a gasp, and everyone helped her up immediately.

"Are you alright?" Heero asked, sounding unlike himself. A few of the Gundam Pilots glanced at Heero oddly but said nothing as Rei was led over to the couch.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she insisted, pulling free and sitting fine. "We don't have a moment to spare." She turned her attention to Quatre. "I know you wanted all of us to talk and clear up everything during breakfast, but you have to tell all of your employees to clear the estate within the next five minutes."

"Rei, you had a vision?" Usagi asked, eyes widening.

Rei nodded. "I'm sorry, but the enemy 'cult' you were investigating are sending troops here to finish us off right now. It ends today."

Quatre nodded, moving to gather his four staff. Once they were all gathered he gave them the keys to one of the cars and hurriedly explained that the house was unsafe and that they were not to return until he called, no matter how long it took, a few hours or a few days. Passing the chef a credit card, he hurriedly directed them to a hotel. The staff fled immediately, knowing their boss's line of work and understanding that a mission had probably gone wrong.

Quatre thanked God that his estate was so secluded and far from any neighbours lest anyone be hurt in the crossfire.

Meanwhile the remaining pilots worked at getting any weapons ready immediately.

"How many are coming here Rei?" Makoto asked.

"It's hard to say," Rei answered, looking worried. "I wouldn't underestimate them."

Ami found her transformation pen. One of her friends had picked it up when she had been killed in city hall, and after a week without it Ami felt relieved to have it back.

Seeing a flash of light to the right, she saw that Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen had transformed.

The other girls followed suit, Ami hurriedly joining in.

"Mercury Star Power!"

The familiar rush of power coursed through her veins as she was surrounded by her element.

Trowa glanced over at the bright lights, noticing that where Ami had stood a moment prior stood Sailor Mercury.

She immediately double clicked her earring, and he diverted his eyes from her outfit and watched with interest as a blue visor spread over her eyes, beginning to get covered with strange symbols. In her hand she held a small blue computer, which she was hurriedly typing on.

Sailor Venus moved to stand next to her, frowning and speaking. "They close Merc?"

Mercury frowned. "My readings are scrambled, I have no way of knowing....then again if my readings are scrambled then they could be messing with them."

"Damn," muttered Venus, glancing up as Sailor Jupiter approached them. Mercury closed her visor and Mini-computer, having no use for them.

"Let's just pair off then. I don't think the pilots guns will do much good right now.....I wonder if the 'cult' leader is coming too."

The lights in the room suddenly began to flicker, silencing all of them.

The Senshi and Pilots all gathered in the center of the living room tensely, as the lights finally went out. The sun streamed in from the dining room windows, filling the living room with light still.

Trowa grabbed Mercury's wrist, wanting her to keep close. Although, he noted to himself, Mercury was much more capable in taking care of herself right now than when they had been lost in time. She had powers now......

A loud crash echoed through the house as both the front and back doors were smashed open.

The distinct sound of shattering glass followed within a moment as windows all over the house were broken, upstairs as well.

"My God, they came in from everywhere to trap us," Mars shouted as a sharp wind tore through the house. Everyone braced themselves, not disappointed when swarms of youma came in from every entry and came running at them from the halls and upstairs, while the group was still in the living room.

To say that the situation was purely chaos was an understatement. Mercury felt suffocated as she tried to get off of the floor, having destroyed the youma that had caused her to end up there.

She couldn't see a single one of her friends, although she was positive that the fighting had branched out from the loving room and into the dining room, kitchen, and various other sitting rooms on the main floor for now.

Hearing a familiar shout, Mercury attacked three of the youma to her right. Trowa came into view, kicking a youma away from himself and shooting it in the head three times before it fell.

"Are you alright?" She asked, dodging an attack from the youma behind her as she spoke. He nodded, the two turning to face the youma.

Jupiter and Quatre fought off youma in the dining room, having a little more space to move in there. Where were the rest of her friends? Quatre smashed a plate into a youma's face next to her, shaking her from her thoughts as she attacked four more in front of them.

"Jupiter Thunder Crash!"

Quatre stepped out of harm's way and she smiled sheepishly at him, the two having a moment's peace before he was suddenly shooting at two more youma behind her.

Venus leapt over the island in the center of the kitchen, dodging an attack and also taking out the unsuspecting youma standing next to it. Wufei had just finished cutting down two youma to her left and was currently dodging the attacks of six more.

Using one of her more precise attacks so that she didn't hurt Wufei, Venus shouted "Venus Crescent Beam! Smash!"

The youma nearest to Wufei was destroyed with a scream, the others freezing a moment.

"What? Scared now?" Wufei mocked.

"Venus Love Chain, encircle!" Wufei gasped as Venus held the remaining youma together with a chain made of energy.

"Go ahead Wufei," she said. "They're all yours."

Mars and Heero were currently fighting in the hall, teamwork their strategy as they stood back to back taking out swarming youma.

A few youma sent a combined attack their way, its size not to be messed with as Heero cursed. The two separated and quickly moved away from the attack as it billowed into the wall by the living room, burning straight through it.

Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Kamen, and Duo were in the formal sitting room. Moon gasped as she realized that Duo was currently swinging from the chandelier in the room, shooting unsuspecting youma. Leave it to Duo to have fun.....

Tuxedo Kamen, busy with a few youma of his own, shouted for her to move and she dodged an attack by the youma besides her, turning and destroying it.

* * *

Hidden and surveying the battle, the self-proclaimed goddess clenched a fist. Her youma were going down like flies, and she would have to up it a bit although she didn't want to lose more of her youma. Snapping her fingers, more youma began filtering into the house, which she had hoped would be a last minute precaution. Killing the Senshi and Pilots would be easy enough now, but she had wasted much of the energy that she had spent several months gathering in this dimension on her pathetic battles with them. It wasn't enough to kill them now. She wanted their energy and powers. It was the only fair way to finish this.

In every room, the Senshi and Pilots began to fret as somehow even more youma began to fill the house, these new youma more vicious and powerful than the ones they were still fighting.

"Oh my God," Mercury breathed, backing up next to Trowa as the two were cornered against the wall of the room, several more youma attacking them at once. The sheer volume of youma in the house was enough to make her lose hope as all she could see were them.

She threw her hands above her head, her and Trowa collapsing to the floor as several attacks hit them at once.

Disoriented, Mercury tried to climb to her feet, but felt the youma all begin to tug her away from where she stood, throwing her to the floor as they dragged her out of the room. She could hear Trowa shouting her name but he was in a similar predicament as well.

* * *

In the formal sitting room, Duo, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen encountered a similar predicament.

Viewing the insane amount of youma spewing into the room, Duo was backing up and quickly muttering. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!"

Sailor Moon glanced his way, worse curses running through her head as Tuxedo Kamen pulled at her hand and indicated at Duo, who looked ready to run.

Run? Sailor Moon frowned. They never ran and left a battle unfinished. Were things really that bad?

Youma began to grab onto her, pulling at her uniform and hair and she was aware of Tuxedo Kamen pulling her away as the three dashed towards the exit of the room, cornered once more youma spilled in from there. The three of them were dragged out of the destroyed sitting room and still struggling, were forced into what seemed like it used to be a ball room in the estate. It was elegant but dusty and unused.

Duo tried to shoot at the youma restraining him and was beaten again, as some of the youma tied up Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen, tying him up as well.

* * *

Venus and Wufei were dragged forcefully outside and bound, to the backyard. Venus could hardly struggle against the youma now, injured and yet unable to comprehend how the enemy had possibly sent even more youma into the house. Looking around the lush green yard, her thoughts revolved around how it would have been a beautiful place had they not been in this situation. There was a gorgeous fountain, plenty of gardens filled with flowers, and a patio.

Wufei searched the ground for his katana, trying to stay alert as he caught sight of the cult leader floating above him and Venus. She stared down at him a moment, a fierce glare on her face, before she floated back into the house, her robes flowing behind her. Wufei's eyes narrowed. What was she up to?

He tried to sit up despite that he was tied up, surveying the area. Looking next to him at Venus, her hands were tied behind her back tightly and she was slumped on her side, her ankles tied as well. Her long blonde hair obscured her face from view and she was silent for once. That fact, although Wufei was unaware why, disturbed him.

"Venus, are you alright?" He asked calmly. She sort of glanced up from where she lay, and he glimpsed her surprised eyes, probably due tot he fact that he had used her name. Immediately she glanced back down, muttering that she was fine. Wufei stared at her a moment longer, taking in her defeated attitude and posture before frowning himself.

* * *

Jupiter screamed as youma dragged her down the stairs of the basement, hearing Quatre's shouts not far behind her. They were keeping all of the Senshi and Pilots far away from each other it seemed, and she guessed that only she and Quatre would be thrown down here. But why?

She was finally thrown on the ground and amidst her struggles some youma were tying her up. A blow to the head silenced her and she could hear them throw Quatre on the floor next to her.

Why weren't they killed? Jupiter had to wonder in her delirium this fact. There were so many youma, why hadn't their enemy killed them?

She heard Quatre groaning from next to her and could hear the youma head back upstairs.

"Quatre," she murmured, her voice just slightly above a whisper as she tried to think past the pounding of her head.

"Y-yes Mako," he responded, his voice cracking, and she knew he was in a lot of pain as the damage any of the youma had previously done to them had doubled when the second group of youma had entered the house.

She tried to drag herself across the floor with her limbs bound, attempting to see how badly he was injured. Noticing what she was doing, Quatre turned to face her, inhaling deeply when he saw she was also in no condition to move.

"Stop Mako- oh Jupiter," he corrected this time, meeting her eyes in he darkened basement. "I'm fine."

* * *

Mars and Heero were finally seemingly restrained, the leader noted with a frown, as they were dragged up the stairs.

Mars could only let out a small groan now, as she was thrown into a bedroom upstairs. Heero was thrown in after her, right on top of her as youma snickered.

He groaned, attempting to get up as he muttered an apology to Mars. Mars seemed too out of it to care and he was moved away from her by a youma that began to tie him up.

The bedroom was large, although Mars guessed every room in this estate was as she tried to recall whether or not she had slept in the room the night before.

She tried to get to her feet, but another youma pushed her down to the floor, grabbing her by her hair and dragging her towards the bed frame to tie her there. She cried out and Heero tried to move through his bindings and help, but was thrown into the opposite wall by a youma.

"Heero, are you alright?" She called, watching as the youma filtered out of the room. He nodded, noticing that they had tied her hands to one of the bed's posts, above her head, and had bound her legs to restrict her from moving.

* * *

Mercury and Trowa were dragged upstairs as well, the youma pulling them past the bedrooms and around the corner of the hall, into two large double doors. Trowa racked his brain to try and remember what room it was, realizing it was the old library of the estate.

It was decently clean, he noted as he was thrown to the ground, although there had been staff at the estate to keep up with it.

Mercury was on the floor nearby, and he attempted to move towards her while she was beginning to sit up, trying to struggle free of the youma that were tying her up.

A couple of youma left the others to restrain her as they approached him, grabbing him by his arms and throwing him against a bookshelf in the room. He covered his head as he connected with the shelf, falling to the ground and trying to get up in vain. The youma were upon him before he could, tying his hands behind legs up and dragging him to a table where they bound his arms to one of its legs, ensuring he wouldn't move.

Mercury was tied up a few feet from him, struggling feebly with her bounds. Her legs were bound at her ankles and her hands were also tied behind her back as she tried to sit up without success, falling back onto her side with a sigh.

"This is bad," she said, turning to look at him. "We have to get free and go find our friends or we are all done for."

"No point in you trying," a voice lazily floated into the room. It was high pitched and self righteous and the two of them recognized it immediately, looking around the room wildly.

The shadow creature which had haunted them the entire prior week floated into the room.

"You," Trowa spat angrily, his frustration towards the creature not yet forgotten.

"Yes me," he sang with an evil twinkle in his eyes, laughing. "Thought you were rid of me?"

"I guess we shouldn't have. You were working for the black moon, weren't you?"

He nodded. "Yes. As part of the cult leader's spell, myself and my brother were sent into the time gates after you. You surely remember my brother. I work for our goddess of the after-life."

Thinking about the self-proclaimed goddess, the cult leader, Ami frowned. Who was she? When had she chosen this dimension to collect her power, and why was she still around after the defeat of chaos even though she supposedly was part of the black moon?

"Yes, we remember your foolish brother, and you'll meet his fate soon enough," Trowa said darkly from where he was tied up.

The creature growled, his red eyes glinting. "No. No I will avenge him."

"You're here already?" The cult leader's voice floated into the room and the shadow creature fell to his knees.

"I was just about to send for you," the cult leader continued, throwing her unbelievable long blonde hair behind her shoulders and floating down next to him. "I guess you'd like a chance to take your revenge?"

The shadow creature nodded. Trowa felt his own fists clench, remembering that he too wanted revenge against the shadow creature for harming them and inhabiting his body when it beat up on Ami.

"You may injure them some more I suppose," the leader said flippantly.

"But Master, I want to kill them!" It seethed. She nodded, speaking. "You can, but first I need you to weaken them. I am planning on draining all of the scouts and pilots life energy to make up for the energy I have wasted having to fight them these last few days. Also I want to take their powers. For me to do this, they must be far more injured than they are right now. So torture them how ever you'd like but don't kill them yet, they will die when I take their life force and powers."

"Life force," Mercury questioned from where she lay. "You mean when you drained those 200 missing people's energy, you drained them until they were dead?"

The leader glanced over at her and nodded. "Of course. The enemies you fought before me were fools. They could drain people until they fell unconscious but they didn't realize that draining the life out of the humans provided far more energy than what they were doing."

"You disgust me. How are you even here? Chaos is gone."

The woman stared at her a moment, clenching a fist as she approached her.

"I am one of the rogue members of the back moon that was not destroyed when Sailor Moon defeated Galaxia and Chaos. Chaos will never fully be destroyed," she seethed, staring Mercury in the eyes. "You died in the last fight with Chaos, right? You felt the power. It took all Sailor Moon and every soldier fighting that day had to fight Galaxia, and chaos at the time was within Galaxia's body. Now Chaos is everywhere, as it should be, and grants power to any member of the black moon who is willing to fight. Understand me when I say that Chaos lives and breathes the evil in the heart of man, and man will always be flawed. No world will ever see an end to it."

Collecting herself and standing, the woman took a deep breath and disappeared, needing to relax and prepare to take the life force and powers from everyone, not fight ideals with Mercury.

Trowa glanced over at Mercury, who seemed to be contemplating the woman's words. He didn't know what Chaos was, but the last thing that the woman had said, about evil in man, he knew that was true. The woman had said that Mercury had died in her last fight against Chaos. Just how many times had she died? Was the silver crystal always able to bring them back, or was it selective? Was it only able to bring everyone back to life if Sailor Moon was alive and had won the battle? Was if even more selective than that? The possibilities and limitations made Trowa's head hurt.

The shadow creature meanwhile was murmuring to himself. "Can't kill, only injure," he muttered, glaring at them. "No!" It stomped its feet childishly, glaring at the two of them.

"If all I can do is injure you, I'm going to make sure its torture like you've never seen," it seethed, approaching them and standing in between them while it debated. A smile came to its face suddenly, as it suddenly remembered the only time it had ever caused damage between the two of them in the gates of time. This time though, this time he could do it to both of them.....

The creature suddenly flew towards Trowa, and he gasped as it flew inside him, causing him to scream in fury as he remembered the last time it had happened.

Mercury trembled slightly, shouting "Trowa, no!"

Trowa's eyes flew open, and she saw them flash red, confirming that the creature was now in control of his body. He sat still a moment, glancing at the ropes that bound his arms and legs oddly, before beginning to pull at them.

Mercury frowned, remembering that the shadow creature was horrendously strong and resilient in Trowa's body, as he tore the ropes binding him with a shout and freed his arms from the table, reaching down and tearing off the ropes binding his legs.

Mercury tried to sit up and back up, her bindings stopping her from doing anything besides struggle as he approached her quicker than she had expected, picking her up her collar as though she weighed nothing and throwing her with as much force as he could muster against a bookshelf in the room.

She hit the shelf with a loud scream, the shelf toppling backwards while she fell amongst the rubble.

Trying to regain her senses, she tried to break from her bonds and run but had no such luck as Trowa or rather the creature was in front of her a moment later, grabbing her by her hair and dragging her across the room. She screamed and he glanced down, stopping a moment as he stomped down on her stomach.

Mercury screamed again and in response he repeated the action, her scream replaced with a small cry and groan as blood began to seep from the side of her mouth.

He grabbed her by her collar as he neared the window of the room, holding her up by her uniform as he smashed her back into it forcefully, managing to break the window with her back and head. Her scream faded as she blacked out a few seconds, coming to with a groan as he threw her to the floor. Gasping, he realized Trowa, who had been fighting for control of his body the entire time, was winning.

The shadow creature flew out of Trowa, and he gasped, crouching down next to Mercury.

Turning her over, he saw that she was awake. Her eyes flashed red a moment, and Trowa didn't have a chance to back off even an inch before she kicked him the chest and sent him flying away from her. Now the creature was in her body? Trowa cursed their luck as Mercury tore apart the rope binding her arms and legs, standing as though she hadn't just been injured at all.

Trowa backed up, in no way wanting to hurt her as he tried to think fast. Mercury, or rather the creature, refused to give him a chance.

Mercury's hands were raised and he recognized the stance as one of the many attacks she had performed against some of the youma earlier.

"Shit," he muttered, gasping as she shouted.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!" The attack came at him before he could blink, and the way she fired the attack with the water swirling around her would truly have been beautiful if she hadn't been aiming at him.

Trowa collapsed to the floor with a scream, his whole body racked with shivers as he gasped for air, never having felt so cold in his life. His body felt like it was entirely coated with ice and he was sure his heart was about to stop as he convulsed, feeling like he had been stabbed several times.

It took him a minute before he could even open his eyes, and he saw Mercury standing over him although he couldn't move.

"Pathetic," she said, and he reminded himself that it was the creature saying it as she stood with her arms crossed, staring at him coldly.

His hands shook violently as he placed them on the ground, trying to rise and falling.

He heard Mercury stepping away from him and he wondered why, gasping as he heard her voice call out another attack.

"Mercury Ice Storm!"

Somehow Trowa managed to move from the floor and main target area, screaming and collapsing a few feet from where had originally laid as the attack hit him only slightly. Trowa knew this attack had been much more powerful than the last for two reasons, the first being that he was convulsing and unable to breath now, this attack only skimming him and yet having been much more painful than the previous. The second reason he knew it was more powerful was because when he was able to take a breath and open his eyes, he realized that the entire room was coated with a thick layer of ice.

Breathing deeply, it occurred to him that the attack would definitely have killed him if it made full contact, realizing that the shadow creature was not following his leader's orders.

Looking for Mercury, he noticed that she was shaking in the corner, and he knew that she was probably gaining control over her body.

She collapsed to the floor suddenly and he knew the creature had left her body as she was probably suddenly feeling the injuries he had inflicted on her just minutes before.

Seeing something black in his line of vision, Trowa gasped but was too weak to do more as the creature took control of his body once more.

Mercury tried to stand from where she lay, gripping onto the ice covered floor and trying to stand as tears trailed down her cheeks. She had just attacked Trowa twice, she had probably killed him. She had never used an attack on a human before.

Finally getting to her feet, she gasped as she was face to face with Trowa, who was glaring. His eyes glinted red and she gasped. No, not Trowa. There was no way Trowa could have been standing unless the creature was back in his body.

With an inhumane shout, he tackled her back down to the icy floor, beginning to punch her repeatedly in her stomach and chest, also landing a few on her face, splitting her lip. Standing, he kicked her in the head, again and again until she was no longer struggling.

Grabbing her off of the ground, Mercury did not move to stop him as she blacked in and out. He threw her at one of the tables in the library, and it was knocked over as she tumbled over it and fell to the ground unmoving.

Grabbing a shard of glass from the broken window he approached her, and bent down next to her. Raising his hand, he jammed the large shard deep into her right shoulder.

She screamed in protest and Trowa screamed in fury, the shadow creature leaving his body. Trowa collapsed on top of Mercury, still injured from when she had attacked him before. She shifted from beneath him and he struggled to get off of her, gasping when he saw that her eyes held the red glint of the creature as she pulled the shard from her shoulder with an angry cry, pushing Trowa off of her and stabbing him in the side with it as deep as she could.

He collapsed again, Mercury screaming again as the shadow creature was pushed out of her body, allowing her to collapse next to Trowa.

The creature floated above the two of them, satisfied yet exhausted from having had to control both of their bodies twice as they had continued to fight him.

Mercury sobbed, trying to get to her knees to check on Trowa but crumpling to the floor again. Trowa feebly tried to grab at the shard of glass, trying to pull it from his side lest it go in deeper. Finally grasping it in his hand, he pulled it out with a scream of agony and threw it on the floor nearby, blacking out a few seconds before coming to.

The creature looked up a moment, sighing with detest as he floated up higher and spoke. "My leader needs me. I can hardly wait for her to come back here and kill the two of you." With that it disappeared, fading into the air.

"Ami," Trowa chocked out, reaching a shaking hand over to touch her cheek, the small action agonizing.

His hand felt ice cold on her cheek and waves of guilt passed through her as she chocked back her tears, turning her face towards him, their faces only inches apart. His own eyes were glassy as he stared at her face, focusing on her split lip and trying to assess how badly she was hurt.

"Are you having trouble breathing," she gasped out, and he knew she was referring to her attack damage as he was still shaking violently.

"It's not...." he exhaled shakily "....that bad."

"How bad is the wound on your side," she asked, her voice growing stronger as she stared at him.

"I'm okay, I was trying to ask about you and your shoulder," he said, a dull and pained laugh escaping his lips as she closed her eyes, letting her tears fall now.

"If everyone else was tied up like we were, we're all done for. I hope they're all still okay..."

He touched hand lightly and her eyes flew open. "You're freezing. We have to get you warm or your heart will stop."

Mercury tried to get up but failed, sighing. Managing to scoot closer to him, she carefully wrapped her arms around him.

"The body heat will help," she said, not bothering to blush as she knew it was vital to keep him alive.

Trowa wrapped his arms around her back carefully, wary that he had broken a window with her back. He wondered when the enemy would come back for them. Neither one of them could walk right now, that definitely wasn't a question.

He turned to look down at her face, realizing she was watching him.

"You okay?" She asked. His eyes were probably only a couple of inches from her when he made eye contact and still she forgot to blush although she couldn't tear her eyes away.

He nodded, lowering his face slightly and kissing her very tenderly, careful since she had a split lip.

* * *

There you go! Part two of the finale will hopefully be up soon, please review and let me know what you think! It truly helps me write!


	9. The Finale Part 2

Hi all, this is the second to last chapter of this story as I am posting an epilogue next.

Also, I am going to upload a new story of mine, Deception, which is an Ami/Heero pairing. There's more about it at the end of this chapter, so please enhoy this chapter and review!

* * *

_Last Time:_

"_If everyone else was tied up like we were, we're all done for. I hope they're all still okay..."_

_He touched hand lightly and her eyes flew open. "You're freezing. We have to get you warm or your heart will stop."_

_Mercury tried to get up but failed, sighing. Managing to scoot closer to him, she carefully wrapped her arms around him._

"_The body heat will help," she said, not bothering to blush as she knew it was vital to keep him alive._

_Trowa wrapped his arms around her back carefully, wary that he had broken a window with her back. He wondered when the enemy would come back for them. Neither one of them could walk right now, that definitely wasn't a question._

_He turned to look down at her face, realizing she was watching him._

"_You okay?" She asked. His eyes were probably only a couple of inches from her when he made eye contact and still she forgot to blush although she couldn't tear her eyes away._

_He nodded, lowering his face slightly and kissing her very tenderly, careful since she had a split lip._

The Finale Part 2

Duo struggled against his bindings, his eyes widening considerably when he noticed the amount of youma filtering into the ballroom. It looked like three-quarters of the youma in the house were being summoned into the room, and Duo was positive they all wouldn't fit in the old ballroom.

From next to him, he saw that Tuxedo Kamen had his hands freed and was hurriedly working on his legs so he could untie him and Sailor Moon. The witch from the day before appeared above them, and they all stopped moving. From above them, she opened a portal and allowed half of her youma to enter it. She allowed the other half to fully get into the room, finally addressing the three who were tied up.

"I have a skeleton crew guarding your friends; since they're tied up and wounded I am unconcerned. I will be getting to all of them eventually. You see, I want you all dead. However, I have wasted precious power and many troops on fighting you Senshi. Simply killing you will not be enough; I want every bit of your powers to replenish mine."

"You're insane," Sailor Moon said from where she laid. "You can never wield our powers."

"I think you'll see that you're wrong about that Sailor Moon," she drawled in response, her gaze traveling to Tuxedo Kamen, whose hands were untied. She frowned. He sat still, staring at her tensely. His mask was gone and he was injured. She floated down to the floor in front of her youma, tipping her head at him.

"How did you get out of those?"

"Trial and error," he responded succinctly. She glowered, turning away from him.

"Ready to show me some power Sailor Moon? I can't steal it until you try to use it."

"Well then she won't use it," Duo said with a shrug, feeling more at ease with the witch's admonition.

"I suppose," she stated carefully. "Or will she? Do you need some provoking, Sailor Moon?"

The shadow creature appeared in the ballroom from the library next to his master, having been called by her and bitter at leaving the other two alive although those were his orders. The witch ignored him, staring at the trio before her with mild interest.

"Provoking?" Sailor Moon questioned.

The witch raised her hand with a grin, nodding. "Yes. What can I do to provoke you into using your powers? I'm sure you know."

* * *

Sailor Pluto hurriedly explained the dangerous situation she had thrown the other Senshi in to Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn as they exited the portal she had opened and headed down the street to Quatre Winner's estate.

"Why didn't you send us with them, or in place of them?" Uranus demanded as she kept Pluto's pace. "The girls were at a graduation lunch and you took them away from that."

"I didn't realize the enemy here had become so strong. I was ordered to send them and busy with another time stream that was in danger. When I checked back to see if they'd discovered anything this morning and see if they were ready to come home, I got a shock."

"Sorry?" Neptune asked, wanting Pluto to elaborate as they neared the estate that the battle was raging in.

"Ami was killed in the fighting yesterday- not to worry! She was brought back thanks to the crystal," she said this bluntly and then quickly corrected at their horrified faces. "However the witch leading the cult messed with the crystal's powers and Ami's soul was trapped, her and one of the other men, for almost a week, or rather a couple of minutes this time. She returned though and this infuriated the cult leader, who sent all of her minions to destroy the Senshi and Pilots as for revenge. I'm sorry, I wish I could explain more but for now I'm afraid we are short for time. They are all separated and injured- are you ready?"

Saturn nodded, stepping forwards first and looking determined. The other three smiled at the fourteen year old, becoming serious as they eyed the estate.

"It's probably best not to make our presence known when we first enter," Neptune commented softly as she stared at the estate's busted door and numerous shattered windows. "Perhaps we should find a secluded place to enter?"

"Good idea," Uranus commented, "But where?"

"Let's quietly head around the back," Saturn said smartly. "If we run into anything, we can destroy it quickly."

"I agree, let's go," Sailor Pluto said, heading off quickly with the other three following quickly.

Heading around the back was surprisingly easy, as it was quiet. Although it was still late morning, the fact that it was light out didn't bother them.

Uranus paused by the side wall of the house, peering around the back silently. Her eyes widened as she saw Venus and a dark haired man tied up in the back. Venus was lying on her side, looking somewhat defeated, and the man was gazing around the area annoyed. They were both wounded.

The four Senshi quickly approached the two, and Wufei tensed before Venus looked up at them with a new hope.

"Guys! I can't believe you came! Right on time," she said, unable to believe she had been so down only a few minutes before.

"Well we're late but thanks anyways," Neptune joked as they were untied, standing shakily next to the four.

"This is Wufei," Venus introduced, eying the house in front of them disdainfully. Wufei nodded at the four, also eying the house critically.

A couple of youma came around the corner, gasping as they saw that they were let loose.

"World Shaking!" Uranus attacked quickly, destroying the two and glancing at the group. "We'd better move. Where is everyone?"

"I don't know," Venus said. "But this door leads to the kitchen; it would be easy for us to be captured here."

"That onna, the leader," Wufei murmured. "She's up to something. Why hasn't she killed us yet? What does she want?"

His words left the group pondering in silence, even Pluto stumped.

"Let's hurry," Saturn urged from next to them. "I'm worried about the others. Isn't there a window or something we can get into?"

"Maybe on the side of the house," Pluto noted, the group taking off before any more youma could spot them.

* * *

Mars continued to try and tug at her bindings, her arms tied above her head to the bedpost she was on the floor next to. It was more than uncomfortable to be bound like this, and her arms ached at the continuous strain she put on them. Besides their other injuries, she and Heero were tied up and most likely wouldn't be able to defend themselves should a problem arise.

Outside the room they were being held captive in, there were a minimum of five youma guarding them. The other youma had gone off a few minutes before, having been called by their master although the purpose was unclear.

Heero watched as Mars struggled futilely with her bindings, his mind racing as he tried to think of a way to escape. The window was right there and if he could find the strength to break his bindings and get up, he was sure he and Mars could survive the jump, even in their current conditions. The clueless monsters patrolling the room were outside, laughing together and whispering in languages unfamiliar to him.

The door wasn't closed all the way, but rather partially opened so the youma could peer inside every few minutes.

He turned his attention back to Mars, who seemed to have an idea but was grappling with it.

"What?" He murmured quietly, catching her attention.

"I think I know what to do, just be really quiet," she whispered. He frowned, but nodded, wishing he at least had a gun on him.

She nodded too, and looked tense as she turned to look up at her bound wrists. She managed to angle her forefinger towards the bindings, seemingly bracing herself. Heero's eyes widened, but he kept quiet for sake of the youma looking in.

Mars counted to three in her head, preparing to unleash one of her smaller and more controllable attacks but worried about her wrists all the same. She became braver knowing it was necessary.

"Mars Fire Ignite," she hardly whispered, and concentrated to keep the scorching flame as small as possible as she bit back a scream, drawing blood from where her she bit her lip. The bindings on her wrists fell to the floor, her wrists free, as she brought a hand to her bloodied lip and stifled a cry, inhaling deeply as she eyed her completely scorched wrists and hands.

Heero couldn't help but feel a lot of respect build within him for her. He didn't know many soldiers that would have harmed themselves that painfully to escape.

"Are you alright?" He murmured quietly. A youma looked through the half-opened door, but seeing Heero sitting in the same position, didn't bother to push open the door and look at Mars.

She nodded, bringing her trembling hands to the bindings on her legs. She undid them as quickly as possible for her burned hands and wrists, not moving from her position on the floor as she tried to make certain no youma were coming.

Standing quietly, she crept across the floor towards him, first undoing the bounds on his ankles and then shakily trying to remove the ones on his wrists. His eyes flew to the door as the two stood silently, gazing at the clueless youma. The two limped towards the window, Heero pushing it open and nodding his head towards it. Mars began to climb through until the scream of a youma from the doorway stopped her.

The five youma all entered the room looking furious, and Mars wasted no time in attacking them, glad that many of them were gone.

"Mars flame sniper!"

Three of them were destroyed almost instantly, the other two attacking her and Heero. Heero fought off the youma holding him down, rolling out of the way as it unleashed some sort of a lightning attack at him.

Feeling a big amount of heat nearby, he saw that Mars was on her feet having taken out the remaining youma. He felt useless, needing some kind of a weapon, as he limped towards her to make sure she was alright.

One of the youma had hit her with another attack, and the two were already pretty beat up, this attack seeming a bit too much on Mars. She swayed slightly on her feet and he debated whether they should exit through the door and risk encountering more youma or jump out the window as planned.

Grabbing her arm to steady her, he glanced towards the window.

"Yes, the window," she said painfully, but he doubted she could make even the small two story jump now.

Seeing the doubt in his eyes, Mars shook her head. "I'm fine. We have to move, now. That witch is up to something and our friends could be in trouble."

Heero nodded at her words, allowing her to jump through the window first. She managed to land in a crouch, although she had trouble getting to her feet. He leapt out after her, helping her stand as the two turned their attention to the stunned group standing before them.

Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Saturn, Venus and Wufei all stared at the two in shock, before running over. They had been searching for a first-floor window on the side of the estate before Mars and Heero had leapt out from above them on the second floor.

"Thank God you got out!" Venus said, the group hurriedly whispering plans of re-entry to help their friends as they searched for an unguarded first-floor window to enter from.

"Wait," Wufei said, stopping at a smaller window in the ground. "What about this?"

"The basement?" Pluto questioned, as a few members from the group crouched down to peer inside.

"Hey!" Venus whispered excitedly. "Jupiter and Quatre are down there! I think they're hurt pretty badly...but I don't see any youma guarding them!"

"How do we open this window?" Uranus questioned, not seeing any way to do so without alerting some youma.

"We have no choice but to break it, although we shouldn't use an attack. Saturn, smash it in with your glaive, I don't think it's too thick," Neptune said. Saturn nodded, raising her glaive before she brought it down with a lot of force onto the window, cracking it the first couple of times and breaking through it the last.

Jupiter glanced up with worry at the sound, the window bringing the little amount of light into the basement shattering. Quatre looked up as well, the two badly injured and hardly able to raise their heads and look.

The window was tiny, the only one in the basement as it was partly in the ground, and she gasped when she saw Saturn slide through it lithely and fall to the ground with a slight groan.

"Saturn! What are you doing here?" Jupiter whispered, glancing up the stairs and at the door, hoping the youma outside hadn't noticed.

"We just arrived," Saturn explained, rushing over to help untie them while their other friends clumsily squeezed through the window. When the second to last person got in, Pluto still outside, the basement door flew open. A few youma came running down the steps, not having much of a chance in the dark as Neptune eliminated them once the got down the steps.

Pluto came in through the window and approached the stairs. The door was now wide open but no more youma moved to enter.

"Where did all of the youma guarding you go?" She asked Jupiter and Quatre, who were hardly able to stand. Uranus picked up Jupiter, holding her piggy back style. Jupiter chuckled weakly, the carrying usually being her job.

Wufei supported Quatre, Venus nodding as she spoke. "Perhaps the youma were called by their master, like the others guarding us and Mars and Heero."

"But why?" Pluto asked critically. "Where did she take them? For what purpose, shouldn't she have left them to guard all of you?"

The group began to head up the stairs cautiously, Pluto, Saturn and Neptune walking ahead of the injured group since Uranus was carrying Jupiter, ready to destroy any attacking youma.

* * *

Sailor Mercury could feel Trowa's heartbeat returning to normal as he warmed up slightly, the effects of her attack gradually wearing off of him as the two lay on the now damp floor of the library, the ice having melted.

"Trowa," she murmured, not wanting to move but knowing they had to. "Can you stand? We should move and try to find our friends before that shadow creature or his master come back."

Trowa inhaled deeply, not wanting to get off the ground and release her but also knowing it was necessary. "I can....can you?"

She nodded shakily, pushing herself away from him and placing her trembling hands on the ground, trying to get off the ground. She managed to rise to her knees with a groan, watching as Trowa got to his feet, leaning on the table. He extended his hand to her, she accepted although she didn't rely on him to pull her up, trying to stand without weighing him down. Once they were both up, they leaned against each other for support, limping out of the library doors. The youma in the hall were gone, and Mercury knew that the witch's plan to steal everyone's energy was taking place somewhere, with some of their friends, or else the shadow creature wouldn't have been called away.

The two headed towards the stairs as fast as possible, before the voice of a youma entered their ears.

"Hold it," it seethed, the two barely getting a chance to turn to look at it from the foot of the stairs before it attacked, blasting them with some sort of black electricity that surrounded them and nearly made them black out.

Mercury felt herself falling backwards, Trowa doing the same from next to her as they both tumbled down the stairs with screams.

The group that exited from the basement heard the screams and took off running towards the sound.

Neptune stopped at the foot of the staircase, gasping at Trowa and Mercury's unmoving bodies. A youma stood at the base of the stairs as well, and Pluto was next to her in an instant.

"Pluto Deadly Scream!"

The youma was obliterated but no one paid to much attention as Pluto, Neptune, and Saturn tried to help up Trowa and Mercury, who were just coming to.

Wufei, Heero, and Quatre eyed Trowa, who was soaking wet and shivering. The other Senshi looked at their battered forms, before Venus spoke.

"Mercury- is it just me or did you attack Trowa?"

Mercury nodded painfully, managing to stand with Neptune's arm around her, although she offered no explanation. Trowa cut in before his friends could get angry, speaking. "We...sort of attacked each other."

No one asked any more questions, certain that it was more complicated than that, as Trowa was finally on his feet and held up by Saturn and Pluto.

"I really hope the last three can stand at this rate," she muttered, the group continuing their search for Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Kamen and Duo.

"You wouldn't happen to know why all of the youma left to their master, would you Mercury?" Mars asked from where she and Heero supported each other. Mercury nodded.

"Actually yes, the witch wants to steal all of our powers and drain us and the pilots of our energy until we're lifeless. Judging by the fact that all of you don't know, that must mean that she went after the other three. We'd better hurry."

"I knew she was up to something," Wufei muttered darkly. Mercury opened up her VR visor, quickly locating where her friends were.

"They're at the room down the hall and to the left. What's that?"

"The old ballroom," Quatre murmured, the group taking off in that direction.

* * *

The witch smiled at Sailor Moon. "Well? What will make you do it?"

"Nothing, I won't let you provoke me into using my powers." Sailor Moon stated this calmly.

"Oh no?" The witch's smile returned full force. "I know."

Duo frowned, staring at the witch's smiling face and wondering what she was getting at.

She raised her hand and turned it palm facing the three, moving it until it was in pointing at Tuxedo Kamen.

"No!" Sailor Moon screeched immediately.

"No? So you'll show me your powers then?"

"No, she won't," Tuxedo Kamen said angrily.

"Let's try and prove you wrong then, Prince Endymion," the witch said quite formally, firing a black beam of energy at Tuxedo Kamen before anything more could be said. It hit him in his chest, Sailor Moon's scream of terror mixing in with his anguished one as he slumped backwards, shaking heavily but not unconscious. The attack had almost been too much with all of his other injuries.

"Not attacking me yet Sailor Moon? You and I both know your Silver Crystal could fry the bonds holding your arms and legs in milliseconds. Shall I persuade you some more?" The witch asked, raising a hand to fire at Tuxedo Kamen's trembling form.

Duo fumed. "Hey, leave him alone!" He shouted angrily. "The guy almost blacked out when you hit him! Don't you believe in hitting moving targets?"

"Not at all, actually. We tied you all up, remember?" With that, the witch turned to Duo and fired a similar beam, this one hitting him in the arm and causing him to scream loudly.

"Stop it!" Sailor Moon screeched. "Just stop!"

"It would be all too easy Sailor Moon," the witch stated calmly. The shadow creature standing next to her smirked, enjoying the scenario now and happy he hadn't missed it when he was back at the library.

Sailor Moon struggled to crawl closer to Tuxedo Kamen, the witch floating down next to him and ignoring her and Duo for the moment. Duo tried to break free of his bonds despite his arm injured on top of his other wounds, but it wasn't happening.

"One more hit should do the trick. Between you and him, I believe that you have the more valuable power." The witch raised her hand to strike the unmoving Tuxedo Kamen again, and Sailor Moon screamed loudly.

"I said stop!"

Her broach suddenly lit up, opening as the crystal flew out to float above her prone figure. It unleashed a bright light in the room, all of the ropes holding them disintegrating. Sailor Moon struggled to her feet, trying to return the crystal to her broach.

The witch was suddenly in front of Sailor Moon just as Moon's hand had grabbed the crystal. She took a step back, but the witch moved forwards and simply grabbed onto her shoulder.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Duo called, trying to get to his feet as Sailor Moon's loud scream followed. The crystal continued to glow from Sailor Moon's grasp, and the self-proclaimed goddess laughed loudly.

"The power this crystal contains is incredible! I feel so much stronger within only a few moments!"

"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"

The witch screamed loudly, tumbling forwards slightly but regaining her balance as she spun around to angrily face the Senshi and Pilots. Sailor Moon rushed back immediately, kneeling by Tuxedo Kamen and Duo as the crystal returned to her broach.

"You wretched Senshi!" Venus didn't have a moment to dodge as the witch raised her hand and fired a huge beam of energy at her, most likely having been collected from the crystal.

Venus' loud scream was followed closely with the screams of her friends as she collapsed to the floor unmoving. Wufei rushed forwards, leaving Quatre to lean on the others as his eyes widened at the amount of blood quickly seeping from Venus' head, neck, and chest.

"Damn it!"

He grabbed her off the floor and ran towards the others, kneeling down and gasping as blood coated her uniform and beautiful golden locks.

"There's so much blood," he murmured, wondering if she was even still alive as his trembling hand reached for her pulse.

Saturn screamed, rushing forwards and bringing her hands to Venus' head to try and close the wound with her healing power. Moving to her neck and chest, she closed those wounds as much as possible before passing out as well from the loss of energy, Wufei catching her with his other arm.

Mercury limped over, scanning Venus with her visor to make sure she was alive while everyone else faced off with the self-proclaimed goddess. The shadow creature appeared in front of her, reaching forwards and placing his grasp on her visor as it crackled and shattered, her computer also clattering to the floor.

Trowa, temporarily forgetting his pain, lunged angrily at the creature, more than sick of his interference. The creature grabbed Ami's wrist, pulling her closer.

"Enough of your interference," it seethed, Mercury trying to tug her arm away.

Glancing at the solid hold the creature had now on Mercury's arm, Trowa ushered at Neptune, who had come to stand beside him. She nodded, and trying to be careful of Mercury, attacked.

"Neptune Deep Submerge!"

The creature screamed loudly in agony, releasing Mercury's wrist. She rushed away from him and back towards Venus and Saturn, checking their pulses while Wufei laid Saturn down next to Venus.

"You're only solid when you want to be, right?" Trowa asked the creature darkly, unable to hide his smile as it faded into nothing. Mercury gave a relieved sigh, never having been so glad that any form of life was dead.

Meanwhile the witch unleashed the remaining youma to attack the Senshi, total chaos taking over the room immediately.

Luckily, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were uninjured and fresh, immediately taking out a majority of the youma with ease.

"There were many more youma than this," Pluto shouted to the two as she dodged an attack. "The witch saved them; she sent them back to her headquarters. If we kill her than the youma she saved will be killed as well, they are all extensions of her power!"

The witch had meanwhile turned her attention back to Sailor Moon, still floored by the power of the crystal.

"Come here little girl, I want that power."

"I know," Sailor Moon said, standing but keeping her distance. "Unfortunately for you you're about to be on the receiving end. This ends now, my Senshi don't have the strength to fight another tedious battle with your youma today."

The witch scoffed, Sailor Moon nodding at Sailor Mars who stood shakily behind the Queen, ready to give one useful attack.

Sailor Moon pulled out her crystal, knowing the witch would come charging at her to steal its power. Before she could move, Sailor Mars attacked.

Pulling out a paper charm, she began to mutter Shinto words, watching as the paper crackled with energy. She chucked it at the woman's back, watching her freeze in her place. It wouldn't last long; Sailor Moon knew this as she raised the crystal and shouted. "Moon Crystal Power!"

The large attack hit the woman, and she screamed loudly, Mars' charm fading but unable to move from the crystal's power.

Sailor Moon poured as much of her energy into the crystal as she could, not stopping until she could hear the scream of the woman indicating that she was dying. It didn't take long.

"Such an- unbelievable power," was all she gasped out as she faded into oblivion. The remaining youma disappeared when their master died, all having been an extension of her.

Sailor Moon dropped to the ground, falling unconscious next to Tuxedo Kamen. Duo crawled over to the two to check on them, grabbing his side in pain and collapsing, on the brink of consciousness. The other injured but still able Senshi ran to check on everyone who was unconscious.

Pluto knelt next to Duo, frowning. "Are you alright? Can you stand?"

He blinked open his eyes, his vision hazy but knowing he was staring at the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. "Are you an angel?" He asked, a blush quickly spreading to her cheeks as he passed out cold.

From behind her, newly awakened Saturn chuckled at her bewildered expression.

"Shit, is Venus alright?" Uranus asked, limping over to Wufei. He shook his head, frowning deeply as he gazed at how injured everyone was. Quatre, voice of reason, limped forwards and spoke.

"Senshi, de-transform, I'm calling 911."

"Hold it, what will everyone think?" Neptune asked. "Look at this place. Look at us."

"My employees left thinking this was a mission gone wrong. They knew I was about to be attacked. Plus, my work in the Preventers is well known. It's okay if we call an ambulance, the public's general assumption will be that of my employees and employers. Actually," he turned to Heero, who was now supporting Mars again. "Headquarters will think we faced off with the cult."

The explanation was good enough for everyone. The conscious Senshi de-transformed and helped the others. Quatre limped into the hall to find a phone while everyone sat or lay on the floor, unable to do much more. It was by now only around once o'clock in the afternoon since they had been attacked in the morning, but from how exhausted the group was it felt like the end of the day.

Quatre returned to the ballroom a few minutes later. "They should be here soon," He clarified, approaching where Uranus had set Jupiter down before fighting the youma and lowering himself to the ground painfully next to her. She smiled weakly at him from where she lay, touching his shoulder lightly.

Ami nodded tiredly, she and Trowa sitting on the floor and trying to just relax until they could get some treatment. They were all in a lot of pain, having been injured in the first youma fight and then having had to deal with the shadow creature or witch leading them. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, just glad that the ordeal was over.

Wufei glanced down at Minako, who looked worse now that she was untransformed. Despite the fact that Saturn had most closed the wounds, her hair was soaked in blood and she was pale white. He reached for her pulse for perhaps the hundredth time since Saturn had healed her, unable to hide his worry now. Worst of all, he wasn't sure why he cared so much. He had only known the onna a little over a day.

Heero held Rei up by her shoulders, sitting silently and staring straight forwards at the others. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Rei's burned wrists, still impressed at her courage although it would probably take a lot longer than a day and a half to get him to admit it out loud.

Setsuna and Hotaru sat tiredly by unconscious Duo, Usagi, and Mamoru. They glanced over at Haruka and Michiru, whom were talking in hushed voices.

The sound of many sirens in the driveway caused everyone to look up, but Quatre spoke. "The front door is already busted open and I described to them where we are, they're coming in with stretchers to get everyone so don't worry."

A couple of paramedics with stretchers appeared in the doorway, followed by several more. The rest from that point was a blur as they spilled into the room and immediately picked up those who were injured the worst, moving onto the others, still seriously hurt, and getting everyone into ambulances more quickly than Ami could have imagined.

When Ami was carted into the emergency room, she looked for her friends but was immediately moved onto a cot with curtains around the bed, as were all somewhere in the emergency room. A nurse approached her with a needle, a pensive frown on her face. Ami knew all of their injuries were severe, and before the nurse could administer the numbing needle a doctor came and told her to put Ami to sleep instead, most of the group having to be dealt with this way because there were just too many wounds. Ami had no complaints, welcoming sleep peacefully once the anaesthetic mask was placed over her face.

* * *

Everything hurt. Her head was pounding, and that was the only coherent thought Ami had when she awoke several hours later, lying in a dark room. Some light filtered into the room from the doorway of the room, and she could here the quiet hum of machinery as some nurses walked down the hall.

Ami tipped her head to the side, trying to see who else was in the room. There were three other cots, but in the dark she couldn't see who were in them.

It was obviously late at night. Shaking her head, she willed herself to go back to sleep, but it wasn't happening. Glancing back around the room, she frowned when she noticed a small amount of light beginning to peak into the room from behind the curtains.

It wasn't lat at night; it was early morning, perhaps five or six from the light.

"Ami," a soft voice whispered. She recognized the voice instantly, whispering back. "Trowa?"

Trowa glanced at the two sleeping forms besides him, wondering who it was although their faces were pretty much hidden by their blankets. He pushed his own blanket back, climbing from the bed and padding quietly across the floor.

"Trowa, don't get up, you're hurt," Ami hissed from where she lay.

His quiet laugh followed as he carefully lowered himself onto the edge of her bed, speaking. "The effects of your attack have almost completely worn off. My prominent injuries were from the first youma attack at the house, so I'm sure they'll let me go today."

His hand found hers, Ami's eyes having adjusted to the room's dim lighting as she tried to gauge whether he was telling the truth about his injuries. He was shivering slightly, probably still feverish, although she supposed it was plausible that the major effects had worn off since it was almost a day since she had attacked him.

At her silence, Trowa's other hand moved to brush her bangs from her face, trailing down her cheek and jaw lightly as he frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"My attacks almost killed you. I stabbed you in your side with that shard too. You shouldn't be up," she said.

He sighed now. "Ami, if I remember correctly, I also stabbed you with that shard, broke a window with your back and head, threw you into a shelf and a table, and punched and kicked you until you blacked out. I should be the one who's worried."

"I'm okay," she said, and he shook his head. "You're not. If you were, you would be able to do more than lightly grasp at my hand. Besides, now that your wounds aren't fresh, your face alone is all the proof of what I did. Even in the dim light I can see the bruises all over your face."

Ami had forgotten how many times she had been hit in the face, but at the mention of it she was sure she looked awful. She tipped her face away immediately, his hand slipping from it, and spoke.

"I'm not mad at you. I heal fast, by tomorrow they will be nearly gone."

"If you're not mad, why did you pull away?" He asked.

"Because it's not very attractive," she admitted, chancing glancing up at him.

His soft chuckle followed. "You pull away, not because you're mad about what I did to your face, but because you're worried I will see it?"

She said nothing, biting her lip to stop herself from laughing at her own actions, this being an appropriate action as she bit her split lip lightly and the pain wiped the smile off her face.

Trowa had returned to stroking her hair, the action relaxing Ami as the room grew lighter with each passing minute, the sun rising. A nurse appeared in the doorway of the room a few minutes later, noticing that they were up. She smiled and entered the room, wagging her finger at Trowa for getting out of bed before smiling at the two and speaking quietly lest she wake the others in the room.

"Are you two feeling alright?"

Trowa nodded. "I'm fine, but I think this one here could use some more pain medication," he said, indicating at Ami.

Ami stared up at him, not realizing she had been so transparent. He smiled back down at her, the rare genuine smile causing her to feel exposed somehow. She couldn't explain it..... maybe it was it how tenderly he held her hand and touched her face. Perhaps it was the look in his eyes as he stared down at her that alone scared Ami, and caused her heart to pound a little faster and her head spin. No one had ever treated her like that, or looked at her like that.....

Ami stopped herself from thinking anymore, knowing the feelings she felt for him were only increasing as the nurse said something about grabbing some medicine and lectured Trowa on getting back to bed. Ami watched the nurses retreating form just to distract herself, glancing up and blushing slightly when she realized Trowa's eyes were still watching her.

"Are you alright?" He asked, and she cursed mentally.

'He can read me like a book,' she thought, now totally sure what she was feeling but having been unwilling even to think it. She had admitted to him that she cared for him, simply had feelings, hadn't she? However, this....

"Maybe you should sleep another hour or so." He sounded worried now, his eyes reflecting this as he leaned forwards and placed a light kiss on her forehead, standing and heading back to his bed carefully as she stared after him. No, it was all too clear now....she knew this as her heart continued to thud loudly in her chest.

She loved him.

Trowa returned to his bed, ignoring the pain from his injuries as he tried to control his erratic heart. Why was Ami suddenly so pale? She must have been really hurt. The thought only caused his head to pound and thoughts to roll over every detail of what had occurred once more. The thought that he had unintentionally brought her any harm made his chest hurt, although he knew he wasn't wounded in his chest.

His thoughts travelled back to her pretty face, bruised badly by his assault, and frail form. She looked so small lying in the bed. He had done it to her. She was in pain and it was his fault, the shadow creature had been in him before, so it should have been easier for him to resist.

He stopped himself, his thoughts returning to the admonition he had made to Ami in the closet that previous morning.

_His lips were against hers a moment later, silencing her. Pulling away, he stared at her a moment before speaking. "I know we only just met a week ago.....but I have very strong feelings for you and I won't pretend that they're not there."_

He was a liar. He hadn't wanted to scare Ami off that previous morning. She had been so reluctant to speak with him, so reluctant to admit that she cared about him because she was leaving.....

His intention had been to tell her that he loved her. The thought of confessing this to her, even now, made him feel like a fool. She couldn't possibly feel the same. This was what made him keep quiet before and this thought would surely stop him from saying anything.

* * *

Epilogue comes next. Also I am posting a new story in this section, called Deception. It's an Ami x Heero story and I've already written and am about to post the first three chapters of it. I wasn't planning on writing one, but I was re-reading my old Ami x Heero fic, Ami's Escapade, and I just found so many things wrong with it as it was my first story. This story is different as I had a different idea for it, but much better and still involving the couple, so I hope you guys read it!


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